Calls related to drug poisoningin older people

Background The data gathered by the Poison Information Centres provides information about adverse drug events among the elderly. In this research, we investigated the reasons for making a call to the HUS Poison Information Centre and the drugs most frequently addressed in calls concerning older people.

Methods Research data was collected from the database of the HUS Poison Information Centre. All calls concerning older people received between the years 2012 and 2016 were included.

Results More than half of the calls concerning the elderly were drug related. Drugs affecting the cardiovascular or nervous system were the most common groups of drugs featuring in the calls. Among the elderly, the most common reasons for calling the HUS Poison Information Centre were errors in doses, dosage or consuming drugs of other people.

Conclusions Drugs are the reason for a significant number of the calls concerning older people. The most frequent drug categories featuring in the calls are widely used among the elderly, and the reasons for calling Poison Information Centres are simple errors in drug therapy. In addition, drug therapy errors made by health care professionals cause numerous poisoning cases, many of which could be avoided.