POLYPHARMACY IN THE ELDERLY - A REVIEW

Abstract

This study aimed to outline the profile of national scientific production covering the theme of polypharmacy in the elderly and to identify the factors and risks associated with polypharmacy in the elderly. This was descriptive research with a qualitative approach of the literature review type, which sought to outline the profile of national scientific productions covering the theme of polypharmacy in the elderly. The article selection strategy followed the following steps: search in selected databases (60); reading the titles and abstracts of all articles found and excluding those that did not address the subject or that were repeated (21); full reading of the articles selected in the previous steps. After careful reading of the publications, 16 articles were not used due to exclusion criteria. Thus, a total of 23 scientific articles were included in the integrative literature review. The region of the country where the most articles were found was the Southeast and most were from the year 2018. The most used definition of polypharmacy was “5 or more drugs”. It is believed that future actions related to polypharmacy should involve strategies aimed at avoiding and preventing the incidence of new cases and not just addressing individuals who are already exposed to polypharmacy.