Association between Ophthalmic Timolol and Hospitalisation for Bradycardia

Introduction. Ophthalmic timolol, a topical nonselective beta-blocker, has the potential to be absorbed systemically which may cause adverse cardiovascular effects. This study was conducted to determine whether initiation of ophthalmic timolol was associated with an increased risk of hospitalisation for bradycardia. Materials and Methods. A self-controlled case-series study was undertaken in patients who were hospitalised for bradycardia and were exposed to timolol. Person-time after timolol initiation was partitioned into risk periods: 1–30 days, 31–180 days, and >180 days. A 30-day risk period prior to initiating timolol was also included. All remaining time was considered unexposed. Results. There were 6,373 patients with at least one hospitalisation for bradycardia during the study period; 267 were exposed to timolol. Risk of bradycardia was significantly increased in the 31–180 days after timolol initiation (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 1.93; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.00–1.87). No increased risk was observed in the first 30 days or beyond 180 days of continuous exposure (IRR = 1.40; 95% CI 0.87–2.26 and IRR = 1.21; 95% CI 0.64–2.31, resp.). Conclusion. Bradycardia is a potential adverse event following timolol initiation. Practitioners should consider patient history before choosing a glaucoma regime and closely monitor patients after treatment initiation with topical nonselective beta-blocker eye drops

The effects of anticholinergic medications on cognition in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Cognitive side effects of anticholinergic medications in older adults are well documented. Whether these poor cognitive outcomes are observed in children has not been systematically investigated. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the associations between anticholinergic medication use and cognitive performance in children. Systematic review was conducted using Medline, PsychInfo, and Embase, identifying studies testing cognitive performance relative to the presence versus absence of anticholinergic medication(s) in children. We assessed effects overall, as well as relative to drug class, potency (low and high), cognitive domain, and duration of administration. The systematic search identified 46 articles suitable for meta-analysis. For the most part, random effects meta-analyses did not identify statistically significant associations between anticholinergic exposure and cognitive performance in children; the one exception was a small effect of anticholinergic anti-depressants being associated with better cognitive function (Hedges’ g = 0.24, 95% CI 0.06–0.42, p = 0.01). Anticholinergic medications do not appear to be associated with poor cognitive outcomes in children, as they do in older adults. The discrepancy in findings with older adults may be due to shorter durations of exposure in children, differences in study design (predominantly experimental studies in children rather than predominantly epidemiological in older adults), biological ageing (e.g. blood brain barrier integrity), along with less residual confounding due to minimal polypharmacy and comorbidity in children

Consumer and Healthcare Professional Led Priority Setting for Quality Use of Medicines in People with Dementia: Gathering Unanswered Research Questions

Background: Historically, research questions have been posed by the pharmaceutical industry or researchers, with little involvement of consumers and healthcare professionals. Objective: To determine what questions about medicine use are important to people living with dementia and their care team and whether they have been previously answered by research. Methods: The James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership process was followed. A national Australian qualitative survey on medicine use in people living with dementia was conducted with consumers (people living with dementia and their carers including family, and friends) and healthcare professionals. Survey findings were supplemented with key informant interviews and relevant published documents (identified by the research team). Conventional content analysis was used to generate summary questions. Finally, evidence checking was conducted to determine if the summary questions were 'unanswered'. Results: A total of 545 questions were submitted by 228 survey participants (151 consumers and 77 healthcare professionals). Eight interviews were conducted with key informants and four relevant published documents were identified and reviewed. Overall, analysis resulted in 68 research questions, grouped into 13 themes. Themes with the greatest number of questions were related to co-morbidities, adverse drug reactions, treatment of dementia, and polypharmacy. Evidence checking resulted in 67 unanswered questions. Conclusion: A wide variety of unanswered research questions were identified. Addressing unanswered research questions identified by consumers and healthcare professionals through this process will ensure that areas of priority are targeted in future research to achieve optimal health outcomes through quality use of medicines

Bridging evidence-practice gaps: improving use of medicines in elderly Australian veterans

BACKGROUND The Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) funds an ongoing health promotion based program to improve use of medicines and related health services, which implements interventions that include audit and feedback in the form of patient-specific feedback generated from administrative claims records. We aimed to determine changes in medicine use as a result of the program. METHODS The program provides targeted patient-specific feedback to medical practitioners. The feedback is supported with educational material developed by a clinical panel, subject to peer review and overseen by a national editorial committee. Veterans who meet target criteria also receive educational brochures. The program is supported by a national call centre and ongoing national consultation. Segmented regression analyses (interrupted time series) were undertaken to assess changes in medication use in targeted veterans pre and post each intervention. RESULTS 12 interventions were included; three to increase medicine use, seven which aimed to reduce use, and two which had combination of messages to change use. All programs that aimed to increase medicine use were effective, with relative effect sizes at the time of the intervention ranging from 1% to 8%. Mixed results were seen with programs aiming to reduce inappropriate medicine use. Highly specific programs were effective, with relative effect sizes at the time of the intervention of 10% decline in use of NSAIDs in high risk groups and 14% decline in use of antipsychotics in dementia. Interventions targeting combinations of medicines, including medicine interactions and potentially inappropriate medicines in the elderly did not change practice significantly. Interventions with combinations of messages targeting multiple components of practice had an impact on one component, but not all components targeted. CONCLUSIONS The Veterans’ MATES program showed positive practice change over time, with interventions increasing use of appropriate medicines where under-use was evident and reduced use of inappropriate medicines when single medicines were targeted. Combinations of messages were less effective, suggesting specific messages focusing on single medicines are required to maximise effect. The program provides a model that could be replicated in other settings.Elizabeth E Roughead, Lisa M Kalisch Ellett, Emmae N Ramsay, Nicole L Pratt, John D Barratt, Vanessa T LeBlanc, Philip Ryan, Robert Peck, Graeme Killer and Andrew L Gilber

What is polypharmacy? A systematic review of definitions

Abstract Background Multimorbidity and the associated use of multiple medicines (polypharmacy), is common in the older population. Despite this, there is no consensus definition for polypharmacy. A systematic review was conducted to identify and summarise polypharmacy definitions in existing literature. Methods The reporting of this systematic review conforms to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist. MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE and Cochrane were systematically searched, as well as grey literature, to identify articles which defined the term polypharmacy (without any limits on the types of definitions) and were in English, published between 1st January 2000 and 30th May 2016. Definitions were categorised as i. numerical only (using the number of medications to define polypharmacy), ii. numerical with an associated duration of therapy or healthcare setting (such as during hospital stay) or iii. Descriptive (using a brief description to define polypharmacy). Results A total of 1156 articles were identified and 110 articles met the inclusion criteria. Articles not only defined polypharmacy but associated terms such as minor and major polypharmacy. As a result, a total of 138 definitions of polypharmacy and associated terms were obtained. There were 111 numerical only definitions (80.4% of all definitions), 15 numerical definitions which incorporated a duration of therapy or healthcare setting (10.9%) and 12 descriptive definitions (8.7%). The most commonly reported definition of polypharmacy was the numerical definition of five or more medications daily (n = 51, 46.4% of articles), with definitions ranging from two or more to 11 or more medicines. Only 6.4% of articles classified the distinction between appropriate and inappropriate polypharmacy, using descriptive definitions to make this distinction. Conclusions Polypharmacy definitions were variable. Numerical definitions of polypharmacy did not account for specific comorbidities present and make it difficult to assess safety and appropriateness of therapy in the clinical setting

Can’t spell ‘medicine’ without ‘me’:finding the spirit of co-design in multidisciplinary collaboration

In this article we reflect on our experience as a multidisciplinary project team with backgrounds in communication design, clinical pharmacy, and software systems development. Teams such as ours face challenges when implementing different methodological processes and can struggle with communication when vocabularies may be understood in vastly different ways. We reflect on our experience, for better and for worse, within the context of an ongoing and active project, and aim to contribute to recent dialogues around participatory and human-centred design for improved healthcare outcomes. For us, this is an active, critical case study, and we speak more about our experience of multidisciplinary team-building than the outcomes of the project itself – they are still in progress. We hope this dialogue will prove useful to inform future multidisciplinary collaborations

Development of a Web-Based System to Report Medication-Related Adverse Effects:Design and Usability Study

BACKGROUND: Medicine use is the most common intervention in health care. The frequency with which medicines are used means medication-related problems are very common. One common type of medication-related problems is adverse drug events, which are unintended and harmful effects associated with use of medicines. Reporting of adverse drug events to regulatory authorities is important for evaluation of safety of medicines; however, these adverse effects are frequently unreported due to various factors, including lack of consumer-friendly reporting tools. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop a user-friendly digital tool for consumers to report medication-related adverse effects. METHODS: The project consisted of 3 parts: (1) content development, including a systematic literature search; (2) iterative system development; and (3) usability testing. The project was guided by participatory design principles, which suggest involving key stakeholders throughout the design process. The first 2 versions were developed as a mobile app and were tested with end users in 2 workshops. The third version was developed as a web application and was tested with consumers who were taking regular medicines. Consumers were asked to complete a modified version of the mHealth app usability questionnaire (MAUQ), an 18-item questionnaire with each item scored using a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The MAUQ assessed 3 subscales including ease of use (5 items), interface and satisfaction (7 items), and usefulness (6 items). Continuous variables were reported as mean (SD) values, whereas categorical variables were presented as frequencies (percentages). Data analysis was conducted in Microsoft Excel. RESULTS: The content for the system was based on a systematic literature search and short-listing of questions, followed by feedback from project team members and consumers. Feedback from consumers in the 2 workshops were incorporated to improve the functionality, visual design, and stability of the third (current) version. The third version of the system was tested with 26 consumers. A total of 79% (N=307/390) of all responses on the MAUQ were scored 6 or 7, indicating that users generally strongly agree with the usability of the system. When looking at the individual domains, the system had an average score of 6.3 (SD 0.9) for “ease of use,” 6.3 (SD 0.8) for “interface and satisfaction,” and 5.2 (SD 1.4) for “usefulness.” CONCLUSIONS: The web-based system for medicine adverse effects reporting is a user-friendly tool developed using an iterative participatory design approach. Future research includes further improving the system, particularly the usefulness of the system, as well as testing the scalability and performance of the system in practice

Correction: Lim et al. Patient-Reported Questionnaires to Identify Adverse Drug Reactions: A Systematic Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 11877

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Risk of medication-associated initiation of oxybutynin in elderly men and women

Objective

Preoperative medication use and postoperative delirium: a systematic review

Abstract Background Medications are frequently reported as both predisposing factors and inducers of delirium. This review evaluated the available evidence and determined the magnitude of risk of postoperative delirium associated with preoperative medication use. Methods A systematic search in Medline and EMBASE was conducted using MeSH terms and keywords for postoperative delirium and medication. Studies which included patients 18 years and older who underwent major surgery were included. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed independently by two authors using the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale for cohort studies. Results Twenty-nine studies; 25 prospective cohort, three retrospective cohort and one post hoc analysis of RCT data were included. Only four specifically aimed to assess medicines as an independent predictor of delirium, all other studies included medicines among a number of potential predictors of delirium. Of the studies specifically testing the association with a medication class, preoperative use of beta-blockers (OR = 2.06[1.18–3.60]) in vascular surgery and benzodiazepines RR 2.10 (1.23–3.59) prior to orthopedic surgery were significant. However, evidence is from single studies only. Where medicines were included as one possible factor among many, hypnotics had a similar risk estimate to the benzodiazepine study, with one significant and one non-significant result. Nifedipine use prior to cardiac surgery was found to be significantly associated with delirium. The non-specific grouping of psychoactive medication use preoperatively was generally higher with an associated two-to-seven-fold higher risk of postoperative delirium, while only two studies included narcotics without other agents, with one significant and one non-significant result. Conclusions There was a limited number of high quality studies in the literature quantifying the direct association between preoperative medication use and postsurgical delirium. More studies are required to evaluate the association of specific preoperative medications on the risk of postoperative delirium so that comprehensive guidelines for medicine use prior to surgery can be developed to aid delirium prevention. Trial registration This systematic review has been registered on PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews (Registration number: CRD42016051245 )