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According to a study unveiled by 60 million consumers, 54% of nursing home residents would take at least one “inappropriate” drug. Explanations.
All our drugs have received marketing authorization (AMM), which is based on a favorable assessment of their benefit/risk balance: the drug brings more benefits than risks for the patient. But it happens that this balance evolves according to the age of the patient, in particular because of a less good tolerance or a less effective elimination by the body.
Beware of certain medications in the elderly
According to 60 million consumers, which lifts the veil on a study carried out in France in 2019, certain classes of drugs are considered inappropriate for people in nursing homes.
These are benzodiazepines with a short half-life (Temesta, Xanax, etc.), anticholinergics – in particular the antipsychotic chlorpromazine – or combinations of drugs that act on the central nervous system (such as benzodiazepines, antidepressants, opiates, antiepileptics, etc.).
For people at home, the alert study on benzodiazepines with a long half-life (Lexomil, Valium, etc.) and on the concomitant intake of at least two non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), frequently observed.
However, the use of inappropriate drugs concerns more people living in nursing homes, at 54% against 29% of elderly people at home.
Coordinating physicians not always present in nursing homes
David Jacquet, founder and director of Maison de Retraite Sélection consulted on the subject, recalls the difficulty for nursing homes to have a coordinating doctor. “More and more establishments come up against the difficulty of having a doctor who can intervene with residents. This does not only concern the medical sector, but all the professions involved in working with residents” he believes.
Residents who require extensive medical care. “This is precisely the problem: people postpone the entry of their loved one into a retirement home, because of the excessive monthly cost that this represents: between 3,000 and 4,000 euros on average. Result: the residents are often people at the end of life, whose length of stay will be one year on average and who will require a lot of care. We are no longer facing retirement homes but increasingly facing medical establishments”.