Beers Criteria Cites Harmful Drugs for Elderly

Beers not Beer!
Even though this list has been around, I have only recently become familiar with it.

The Beers Criteria (or Beers List) is a list of specific medications that are generally considered inappropriate when given to elderly people. For a wide variety of individual reasons, the medications listed tend to cause side effects in the elderly due to the physiologic changes of aging. The list was originally created by geriatrician Mark H. Beers. The criteria were created through consensus of a panel of experts and originally published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.ξ
An alternative to Beers list is called the STOPP (Screening Tool for Older Persons of potentially inappropriate Prescriptions) criteria. The STOPP Criteria criticizes the Beers List because, when used as a simple checklist, the Beers List neglects the patient’s medical diagnosis, psychosocial status, and ADLs (activities of daily living), drug availability (e.g., European Agency approved or FDA approved), and causality.

Either list to the consumer could be valuable as a starting point for a discussion with your physician or the physician of an elder.