SynthesisBMC geriatrics2017
Concurrent use of alcohol interactive medications and alcohol in older adults: a systematic review of prevalence and associated adverse outcomes.
Synthesis in BMC geriatrics, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex Differences in Older Adults with Risky Alcohol Consumption: Medication Use, Comorbidities, and Hepatic Biomarkers.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Alcohol-medication interactions among older people: a narrative review on age-specific evidence.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2026Review
- Article
- Safety-I Versus Safety-II: A Mixed-Methods Study Revealing the Imbalance of Approaches in Primary Care Medication Safety.Journal of patient safety · 2025Article
- Article
- Harmonization of alcohol use data and mortality across a multi-national HIV cohort collaboration.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Article
- Tailoring Treatment for Substance Use Disorders in Older Adults: A Mixed-methods Study.Innovation in aging · 2025Article
- Drug interactions in patients with alcohol use disorder: results from a real-world study on an addiction-specific ward.Therapeutic advances in drug safety · 2025Article
- Influence of inpatient withdrawal treatment on drug safety in alcohol use disorder - a quasi-experimental pre-post study.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Article
- Drug safety in older patients with alcohol use disorder: a retrospective cohort study.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Demographic differences in the cascade of care for unhealthy alcohol use: A cross-sectional analysis of data from the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2023Article
- Alcohol, the overlooked drug: clinical pharmacist perspectives on addressing alcohol in primary care.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2023Article
- The importance of alcohol in elderly's hospital admissions for fall injuries: a population case-control study.Nordisk alkohol- & narkotikatidskrift : NAT · 2022Article
- Co-use of medication and alcohol: The influence on subjective effects of intoxication and affect.Personality disorders · 2022Article
- Alcohol use disorder and treatment receipt among individuals aged 50 years and older: Other substance use and psychiatric correlates.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2021Article
- Association between relationship quality and concurrent alcohol use and sedative-tranquilizer misuse in middle and later life.Aging & mental health · 2021Article
- The association between medication or alcohol use and the incidence of frailty: a retrospective cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2021Article
- Fall-related emergency department visits involving alcohol among older adults.Journal of safety research · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOlder adults are susceptible to adverse effects from the concurrent use of medications and alcohol. The aim of this study was to systematically review the prevalence of concurrent use of alcohol and alcohol-interactive (AI) medicines in older adults and associated adverse outcomes.
methodsA systematic search was performed using MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase, Scopus and Web of Science (January 1990 to June 2016), and hand searching references of retrieved articles. Observational studies reporting on the concurrent use of alcohol and AI medicines in the same or overlapping recall periods in older adults were included. Two independent reviewers verified that studies met the inclusion criteria, critically appraised included studies and extracted relevant data. A narrative synthesis is provided.
resultsTwenty studies, all cross-sectional, were included. Nine studies classified a wide range of medicines as AI using different medication compendia, thus resulting in heterogeneity across studies. Three studies investigated any medication use and eight focused on psychotropic medications. Based on the quality assessment of included studies, the most reliable estimate of concurrent use in older adults ranges between 21 and 35%. The most reliable estimate of concurrent use of psychotropic medications and alcohol ranges between 7.4 and 7.75%. No study examined longitudinal associations with adverse outcomes. Three cross-sectional studies reported on falls with mixed findings, while one study reported on the association between moderate alcohol consumption and adverse drug reactions at hospital admission.
conclusionsWhile there appears to be a high propensity for alcohol-medication interactions in older adults, there is a lack of consensus regarding what constitutes an AI medication. An explicit list of AI medications needs to be derived and validated prospectively to quantify the magnitude of risk posed by the concurrent use of alcohol for adverse outcomes in older adults. This will allow for risk stratification of older adults at the point of prescribing, and prioritise alcohol screening and brief alcohol interventions in high-risk groups.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.