The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Beers Criteria® (AGS Beers Criteria®) for Potentially Inappropriate Medication (PIM) Use in Older Adults are widely used by clinicians, educators, researchers, healthcare administrators, and regulators. Since 2011, the AGS has been the steward of the criteria and has produced updates on a 3-year cycle. Beers Criteria and adjust your approach to those medications accordingly. 4 Optimal application of the AGS 2015 Beers Criteria involves identifying potentially inappropriate medications and where appropriate offering safer nonpharmacological and pharmacological therapies. 5 The AGS 2015 Beers Criteria should be a starting point for a 5 The Beers Criteria were developed by Mark Beers, MD, and colleagues at the University of 6 California Los Angeles in 1991, with the purpose of identifying medications for which potential 7 harm outweighed expected benefit and that should be avoided in nursing home residents. The list of American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria For Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use In Older Adults was reviewed by experts. The complete 2019 AGS Beers list is available in pdf for educators, doctors, clinicians, researchers, etc. Beers Criteria is also known as the Beers list. What are the five Beers criteria? The American Geriatrics Society uses specific criteria to list potentially inappropriate medications for adults over age 65. The five sections of the Beers Criteria are: Medications to avoid if you’re over 65 years old and not in a hospice or a palliative care For neuropathic pain—SNRI, gabapentin, capsaicin topical, pregabalin, lidocaine patch arbiturate naproxen) if no heart failure or eGFR > mL/Amobarbital utabarbital utalbital Mephobarbital Opioids For epilepsy—other anticonvulsants (e.g., lamotrigine, levetiracetam) min and given with PPI Pentobarbital Phenobarbital Secobarbital for The AGS Beers criteria contain drug-specific and explicit criteria that address various aspects of inappropriate prescriptions. 8-10) The 2019 AGS Beers criteria, the most recent version, proposes five PIM categories, including PIM categories I (medications that may be inappropriate in most older adults), II (medications that may worsen the Notable drug interactions added include opioids plus benzodiazepines or gabapentenoids.1 Use of the Beers list has not been convincingly shown to reduce morbidity, mortality, or cost but is often used by organizations as quality measures. Since 2011, the AGS has been the steward of the criteria and has produced updates on a regular cycle. The AGS Beers Criteria® is an explicit list of PIMs that are typically best avoided by older adults in most circumstances or under specific situations, such as in certain diseases or conditions. New medication interactions to note include opioids with benzodiazepines, gabapentin (Neurontin), or pregabalin (Lyrica) because of the risk of severe respiratory depression; phenytoin (Dilantin Gabapentinoid drugs—specifically gabapentin American Geriatrics Society 2019 Updated AGS Beers Criteria for potentially inappropriate medication use in older adults. of aging. The 2023 American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Beers Criteria® (AGS Beers Criteria®) for Potentially Inappropriate Medication (PIM) Use in Older Adults is the seventh overall update and fourth since AGS became the criteria’s steward in 2011. As with previous updates, the AGS and The American Geriatric Society Beers Criteria® 2019 update provides guidance for safe and quality prescribing for older adults. Medications were added to the list and medications were deleted from the list since the update in 2015. This article uses a case study to exemplify how the Beers Criteria may be used in practice. The Beers Criteria® are not meant to be hard and fast rules but rather These criteria for inappropriate prescribing practices in elderly people were developed by a national consensus panel in Canada.15 The Canadian criteria give more consideration to indication, comorbidities, and duration of therapy than the Beers list. The intention of the AGS Beers Criteria® is to: (1) reduce older adults’ exposure to Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIMs) by improving medication selection; (2) educate clinicians and patients; and (3) serve as a tool for evaluating quality of care, cost, and patterns of drug use in Recently, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) released the 2023 AGS Beers Criteria ® for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults. For more than 20 years, the Beers Criteria ® have been a valuable resource for healthcare providers about the safety of prescribing drugs for older people. Opioids used concurrently with gabapentin or pregabalin may increase the risk of severe sedation, including respiratory depression and death. Multiple anticholinergic medications used concurrently increase the risk of cognitive decline, delirium, and falls/fractures. The Beers Criteria are a unique set of evidence-based recommendations tailored specifically for older adults (65 years and older) in all care settings, except hospice or palliative care. This list of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) provides guidance on how to optimize medication selection in older adults, and it can help meet a Gabapentinoids (pregabalin and gabapentin) which had been on the list to be used in only low doses due to ataxia and falls are now recommended to be avoided in combination with opioids due to sedation, respiratory depression, and death; The AGS Beers Criteria® comprises drugs and drug classes that the AGS and its expert panel consider to be potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) for use in older adults. The expert panel organized the criteria into the same five general categories that were used in the 2019 update:
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