Prescribing in frailty

Last month, the research round-up provided you with an overview of articles relating to or including remote care and remote prescribing. This month, we will review articles looking at prescribing in frailty. The first describes a pharmacist-led deprescribing service using the STOPPFrail Criteria for older adults. The second article is a systematic review of the association between polypharmacy and frailty in patients with heart failure. Finally, the third article reviews the association between drug therapy and the risk of incident frailty.

This article, published in the Journal of American Directors Association, sought to demonstrate the potential impact of a pharmacist-led application of STOPPFrail criteria on reducing potentially inappropriate medications and clinical outcomes for frail older adults in nursing homes.

The study design was prospective in nature and was an unblinded nonrandomised study conducted in six nursing homes in Cork, Ireland. Data was collected at baseline (before the pharmacist review), after the review was conducted and at 6 months post-review. A convenience sampling approach was used with the research pharmacist liaising with GPs and nursing staff to identify eligible patients (over 65 with advanced frailty). This resulted in 99 participants being recruited with the intervention taking place between August 2021 and April 2023. After the pharmacist deprescribing recommendations were made, discussions with the participants' GPs were undertaken and the recommendation was either implemented or not.