{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T23:36:33Z","timestamp":1791588993713,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,8]],"date-time":"2021-06-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1623110400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pharmacol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    <jats:bold>Aim:<\/jats:bold>\n                    To measure the extent of polypharmacy, multimorbidity and potential medication-related problems in elderly patients with chronic pain receiving home care.\n                  <\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    <jats:bold>Methods:<\/jats:bold>\n                    Data of 355 patients aged \u226565\u00a0years affected by chronic pain in home care who were enrolled in the\n                    <jats:italic>ACHE<\/jats:italic>\n                    study in Berlin, Germany, were analyzed. History of chronic diseases, diagnoses, medications including self-medication were collected for all patients. Multimorbidity was defined as the presence of \u22652 chronic conditions and levels were classified by the Charlson-Comorbidity-Index. Polypharmacy was defined as the concomitant intake of \u22655 medications. Potentially clinically relevant drug interactions were identified and evaluated; underuse of potentially useful medications as well as overprescription were also assessed.\n                  <\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    <jats:bold>Results:<\/jats:bold>\n                    More than half of the patients (55.4%) had moderate to severe comorbidity levels. The median number of prescribed drugs was 9 (range 0\u201325) and polypharmacy was detected in 89.5% of the patients. Almost half of them (49.3%) were affected by excessive polypharmacy (\u226510 prescribed drugs). Polypharmacy and excessive polypharmacy occurred at all levels of comorbidity. We detected 184 potentially relevant drug interactions in 120\/353 (34.0%) patients and rated 57 (31.0%) of them as severe. Underprescription of oral anticoagulants was detected in 32.3% of patients with atrial fibrillation whereas potential overprescription of loop diuretics was observed in 15.5% of patients.\n                  <\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    <jats:bold>Conclusion:<\/jats:bold>\n                    Multimorbidity and polypharmacy are highly prevalent in elderly outpatients with chronic pain receiving home care. Medication-related problems that could impair safety of drug treatment in this population are resulting from potentially relevant drug interactions, overprescribing as well as underuse.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fphar.2021.686990","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,8]],"date-time":"2021-06-08T01:40:44Z","timestamp":1623116444000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":62,"title":["High Prevalence of Multimorbidity and Polypharmacy in Elderly Patients With Chronic Pain Receiving Home Care are Associated With Multiple Medication-Related Problems"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Juliana","family":"Schneider","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Engi Abd Elhady","family":"Algharably","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andrea","family":"Budnick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Arlett","family":"Wenzel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dagmar","family":"Dr\u00e4ger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Reinhold","family":"Kreutz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"622","DOI":"10.1007\/s12603-014-0033-3","article-title":"Age, Frailty, Disability, Institutionalization, Multimorbidity or Comorbidity. 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