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A recent article estimated 100,000 emergency hospitalizations for adverse drug events in U.S. adults 65 years of age or older each year. Nearly half of these hospitalizations were among adults ≥80 years old and two-thirds were due to unintentional overdoses.
Four medications or medication classes were implicated alone or in combination in 67% of hospitalizations:
- Warfarin (33.3%)
- Insulins (13.9%)
- Oral antiplatelet agents (13.3%)
- Oral hypoglycemic agents (10.7%)
Opioids were #5. Digoxin was #7 and resulted in the highest percentage of hospitalizations per ED visit at 80%.
References
Budnitz DS, et al. Emergency hospitalizations for adverse drug events in older Americans. N Engl J Med 2011;365:2002-12.