Drug-Related Deaths in Older Patients Probed
From Times Wire Reports
Taking greater care when giving drugs to elderly patients could bring down relatively high death rates caused by adverse drug reactions, Norwegian researchers said.
A study showed the cause of death for 132 of 732 elderly patients at Central Hospital in Akershus, Norway, was termed either indirect or direct fatal reactions to drugs given. The findings appear in the American Medical Assn. journal, Archives of Internal Medicine.
The study blamed most of the deaths on symptom misinterpretations, poor monitoring of drug concentrations, and inadequate dosage adjustments.
