ArticleDrugs & aging2014
Prescription of addictive and non-addictive drugs to home-dwelling elderly.
Article in Drugs & aging, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Brief Intervention for Discontinuing Inappropriate Z-Hypnotic Use Among Older Patients in Primary Care: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial With a Single Crossover.JMIR research protocols · 2026Trial
- Can the remuneration scheme of general practitioners affect their antibiotic prescription behaviour?Health economics review · 2026Article
- Observational
- Observational
- General practitioners' prescriptions of benzodiazepines, Z-hypnotics and opioid analgesics for elderly patients during direct and indirect contacts. A cross-sectional, observational study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2018Observational
- Alcohol and prescribed psychotropic drug use among patients admitted to a department of old-age psychiatry in Norway.Nordisk alkohol- & narkotikatidskrift : NAT · 2017Article
- Polypharmacy Among the Elderly in a List-Patient System.Drugs - real world outcomes · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundComplex medical conditions are frequent among seniors, and their medical treatment represents a challenge. Older patients have a high rate of consumption of prescription drugs, greater risks of medication interactions, and a higher likelihood of side effects. Many common drugs used by the elderly also have addictive potential. Prescription patterns involving general practitioners (GPs) are not sufficiently known.
objectiveOur objective was to examine the regular GP role in the prescription of addictive and non-addictive drugs to home-dwelling older people in Norway.
designThe study was designed as a panel data study.
settingData on all prescription drugs dispensed at pharmacies to patients 70 years and older from the Norwegian Prescription Database were merged with data on GPs and GPs' patient lists from the Regular General Practitioner Database. The dataset included 624,308 patients and 4,520 GPs in the period from 2004 to 2007. OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures included quantities of addictive and non-addictive drugs prescribed and dispensed per patient by the regular GP, other GPs, non-GP specialists, and hospital doctors; the number of prescribers per patient; and time trend over the observation period.
resultsOn average, 319 defined daily doses of medication were prescribed per quarter to an older patient, 6 % of which were classified as possibly addictive medications. Of all drugs, 72 % were prescribed by the patients' regular GP, 77 % of addictives and 71 % of non-addictives. Drug quantities prescribed increased with multiple prescribers and did so to a greater extent for addictives than for non-addictives. Time trends show an increasing number of prescribers and increasing drug quantities over the observation period.
conclusionThe regular GP prescribes the major portion of non-addictive and, especially, addictive medications to older patients and thus holds a key role in the coordination of prescriptions to this group. Focusing on the role of the GP is important in view of the increasing time trends.
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