Drugs and drug families associated with prescribing issues
The drug families associated with prescribing issues according to the STOPP/START and the Beers criteria are described in detail in tables 2 and 3, respectively.
Briefly, when both sets of criteria were taken into account, benzodiazepines were the family that most frequently had to be discontinued; based on the STOPP criteria, benzodiazepines were followed by opioids and anticholinergic agents; according to the Beers criteria, vasodilators, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and non–cyclooxygenase-selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were the categories that had to be stopped.
The most frequent drugs that should have been started (PPO) were the seasonal trivalent influenza and the pneumococcal vaccines, as well as vitamin D and calcium supplements.
The most frequent drug involved with potentially relevant interactions was cobicistat in 20 patients (22.0%), followed by dolutegravir in 9 (9.9%), metformin in 8 (8.8%), and mirenal supplements in 5 (5.5%).
The 3 most severe interactions, which affected 2 patients, were elvitegravir/cobicistat with clopidogrel and darunavir/cobicistat with carbamazepine and fluticasone.