Beers Criteria

The Beers list is a list of drugs that patients over 65 years should not receive. It was created by the American geriatrician Mark H. Beers in 1991. The list was updated in 2003. It is all about drugs, which may come increasingly to adverse drug reactions in the elderly in particular, or are available for the alternative preparations with fewer side effects.

Situation in Germany

For Germany a long time there was no comparable list of drugs, even if it would have been desirable because of the different market situation and the different prescribing practices. 2005 were 20% of the over 65 year old patient in Germany at least one drug from the Beers list prescribed. In 2010 was published by a research team led by the Wuppertal pharmacologist Petra A. Thürmann the Priscus list is used to attempt to adapt the Beers List to the national peculiarities of Germany.

A theme of the Beers list are interactions between multiple medications. The drug report 2013 brings the latest figures on drug use in people over 65 years and draws particular attention to problems caused by polypharmacy in this age group.

Monitor drug prescriptions

Since March 2012, the Central Research Institute of Ambulatory Health Care in the Federal Republic of Germany (ZI ) in cooperation with the PMV Research Group at the University of Cologne indicators for regulation potentially inadequate medication ( PIM) for the elderly are available.