Denis O'Mahony

University College Cork | UCC · Department of Medicine

Background Guidelines and studies provide conflicting information on whether type 2 diabetes (T2D) should be considered a coronary heart disease risk (CHD) equivalent in older adults. Methods We synthesized participant‐level data on 82,723 individuals aged ≥65 years from five prospective studies in two‐stage meta‐analyses. We estimated multivariab...

Background Prescribing cascades (PCs) occur when a new medication is prescribed to treat an unrecognized side-effect of another medication. PCs represent an important but often underrecognized aspect of inappropriate prescribing in older people with multimorbidity and associated polypharmacy and can result in avoidable morbidity and mortality. Nume...

Purpose To explore the association between medication use-related factors and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older hospitalised multimorbid patients with polypharmacy. Methods This cross-sectional study used the intervention arm data of the OPERAM trial (hospitalised patients ≥ 70 years with polypharmacy). HRQoL was assessed using the v...

Purpose Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are prevalent among multimorbid and polymedicated older adults and can increase the risk of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), hospital admissions, and mortality. This study describes the incidence and prevalence of 66 clinically relevant DDIs and analyses the occurrence of 12 corresponding predefined ADRs in older...

Background: Older women experience more adverse drug reactions (ADRs) than older men. However, the underlying basis for this sex difference is unclear. Sex (biological status) and/or gender (sociocultural constructs) influences on patterns of inappropriate prescribing in multimorbid older adults may be one reason for this ADR sex difference. In thi...

Introduction: The accelerated discovery and production of pharmaceutical products has resulted in many positive outcomes. However, this progress has also contributed to problematic polypharmacy, one of the rapidly growing threats to public health in this century. Problematic polypharmacy results in adverse patient outcomes and imposes increased st...

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are frequent and represent a significant healthcare burden. ADRs are a potentially avoidable contributor to excess unscheduled hospital admissions, higher morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. The objective of this review is to examine the epidemiology of ADRs in older multimorbid adults and to explore strategies...

Limited data are available on characteristics associated with antipsychotic use in multimorbid older adults. Primary: to identify patient characteristics associated with antipsychotic prescribing in a multimorbid population of older inpatients with polypharmacy. Secondary: (1) to observe if antipsychotics use during an index hospitalisation was ass...

Purpose Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in older people. Older people with diabetes mellitus may be at especially high risk of ADRs but this risk has not been well studied. This study aimed to compare severity and type of ADRs in hospitalised, multimorbid older people with and without diabetes...

Introduction: STOPP/START criteria for potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs, STOPP) and potential prescribing omissions (PPOs, START) have gained considerable interest and traction since they were first published in 2008. This review focuses on their uptake and impact in various clinical settings. Areas covered: STOPP/START criteria, now...

Purpose: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in older people. Older people with diabetes mellitus may be at especially high risk of ADRs but this risk has not been well studied. This study aimed to compare severity and type of ADRs in hospitalised, multimorbid older people with and without diabetes...

Background: Drug-related readmissions (DRAs) are defined as rehospitalizations with an adverse drug event as their main or significant contributory cause. DRAs represent a major adverse health burden for older patients. A prediction model which identified older hospitalized patients at high risk of a DRA <1 year was previously developed using the...

Background. Limited data are available on characteristics associated with antipsychotic’s use in multimorbid older adults. Aims. (1) To identify factors associated with antipsychotic prescribing in older inpatients, (2) to assess the association between antipsychotic use and drug-related readmission (DRA) within one year. Method. This is a second...

Aging seems to be a longer lasting pandemic than COVID. Older people enjoy liv¬ing happily despite a rapidly increasing disease burden, and this has to do with the robust and expanding achievements of hygiene and medicine. This may or may not include the most important option for treatment in almost all therapeutic areas, which is the prescription...

A supplementary file was missing from this article and has now been uploaded and the order of the supplementary files has been changed. In the second supplementary file, the title “Appendix 2” has been added. In addition, the reference to the supplementary files in the text has been amended to: ‘The final total number of validated STOPP/START crite...

Background: In multimorbid older patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the intensity of glucose-lowering medication (GLM) should be focused on attaining a suitable level of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c ) while avoiding side effects. We aimed at identifying patients with overtreatment of T2DM as well as associated risk factors. Methods: In...

Purpose: STOPP/START is a physiological systems-based explicit set of criteria that attempts to define the clinically important prescribing problems relating to potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs-STOPP criteria) and potential prescribing omissions (PPOs-START criteria). The previous two versions of STOPP/START criteria were published in 2...

Background: Benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRAs) are commonly prescribed in older adults despite an unfavorable risk-benefit ratio. Hospitalizations may provide a unique opportunity to initiate BZRA cessation, yet little is known about cessation during and after hospitalization. We aimed to measure the prevalence of BZRA use before hospitaliza...

With growing global concern regarding medication-related harm, WHO launched a global patient safety challenge, Medication Without Harm, in March, 2017. Multimorbidity, polypharmacy, and fragmented health care (ie, patients attending appointments with multiple physicians in various health-care settings) are key drivers of medication-related harm, wh...

Background: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) contribute to polypharmacy and are associated with adverse effects. As prospective data on longitudinal patterns of PPI prescribing in older patients with multimorbidity are lacking, we sought to assess patterns of PPI prescribing and deprescribing, as well as the association of PPI use with hospital admis...

Objectives: We identified factors associated with healthcare costs and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of multimorbid older adults with polypharmacy. Methods: Using data from the OPERAM (OPtimising thERapy to prevent Avoidable hospital admissions in the Multimorbid older people) trial, we described the magnitude and composition of healthc...

Background Diabetes overtreatment is a frequent and severe issue in multimorbid older patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Objective This study aimed at assessing the association between diabetes overtreatment and 1-year functional decline, hospitalisation and mortality in older inpatients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy. Methods Ancillary s...

Background Cognitive decline is common in older people. Numerous studies point to the detrimental impact of polypharmacy and inappropriate medication on older people’s cognitive function. Here we aim to systematically review evidence on the impact of medication optimisation and drug interventions on cognitive function in older adults.MethodsA syste...

Background and objective: Prescribing cascades occur when a drug is prescribed to manage side effects of another drug, typically when a side effect is misinterpreted as a new condition. A consensus list of clinically important prescribing cascades that adversely affect older persons' health (i.e., where risks of the prescribing cascade usually exc...

Prescribing cascades are increasingly recognized since they were described in the mid-1990s. Cascades are more likely in older people with multimorbidity and associated polypharmacy where multiple medications can induce a variety of side effects that manifest with various non-specific symptoms that may be misidentified as new geriatric syndromes su...

Importance: The most appropriate therapy for older adults with multimorbidity may depend on life expectancy (ie, mortality risk), and several scores have been developed to predict 1-year mortality risk. However, often, these mortality risk scores have not been externally validated in large sample sizes, and a head-to-head comparison in a prospecti...

Frail older adults commonly experience multiple co-morbid illnesses and other risk factors for potentially inappropriate prescribing. However, determination of frailty varies depending on the frailty instrument used. Older people’s degree of frailty often influences their care and treatment priorities. Research investigating the association between...

Background Inappropriate polypharmacy has been linked with adverse outcomes in older, multimorbid adults. OPERAM is a European cluster-randomized trial aimed at testing the effect of a structured pharmacotherapy optimization intervention on preventable drug-related hospital admissions in multimorbid adults with polypharmacy aged 70 years or older....

Objective To evaluate the agreement of hospital physicians and older patients with individualised STOPP/START-based medication optimisation recommendations from a pharmacotherapy team. Methods This study was embedded within a large European, multicentre, cluster randomised controlled trial examining the effect of a structured medication review on...

Background: Estimating life expectancy of older adults informs whether to pursue future investigation and therapy. Several models to predict mortality have been developed but often require data not immediately available during routine clinical care. The HOSPITAL score and the LACE index were previously validated to predict 30-day readmissions but...

With population ageing, the number of older people is growing, which results in increasing number of people with multimorbidity and related polypharmacy. Polypharmacy in its turn leads to drug-related problems (DRPs) and potentially inappropriate prescribing (IP) in older people. In this commentary, susceptibility of older people to DRPs due to cha...

Background: Identifying patients at high risk of drug-related hospital admission (DRA) may help to efficiently target preventive interventions. We developed a score to predict DRAs in older patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy. Methods: We used participants from the multicenter European OPERAM trial ("Optimising PharmacothERapy in the M...

Background The Screening Tool of Older Persons’ Prescriptions (STOPP)/Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment (START) instrument is used to evaluate the appropriateness of medication in older people. STOPP/START criteria have been converted into software algorithms and implemented in a clinical decision support system (CDSS) to facilitate their...

Background identifying drug-related hospital admissions (DRAs) in older people is difficult. A standardised chart review procedure has recently been developed. It includes an adjudication team (physician and pharmacist) screening using 26 triggers and then performing causality assessment to determine whether an adverse drug event (ADE) occurred (se...

Background Older adults with chronic conditions are at high risk of complications from influenza and pneumococcal infections. Evidence about factors associated with influenza and pneumococcal vaccination among older multimorbid persons in Europe is limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and determinants of these vaccinatio...

Purpose To assess medication-related quality-of-life (MRQoL) in multi-morbid older adults with polypharmacy and correlations with medications, frailty and health-related QoL. Methods With a cross sectional study of multi-morbid geriatric medicine outpatients, we assessed MRQoL (MRQol-LSv1), frailty status, potentially inappropriate medications, Me...

N = 351) Background Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are highly prevalent in older patients but little is known about prevalence of DDIs over time. Our main objective was to assess changes in the prevalence and characteristics of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) during a one-year period after hospital admission in older people, and associated risk facto...

The article was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal on 07 August 2020 without open access. With the author(s)’ decision to opt for Open Choice the copyright of the article changed on 14 May 2021 to © The Author(s) 2021 and the article is forthwith distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International...

Aims Non‐implementation of pharmacist recommendations by physician prescribers may prolong potentially inappropriate prescribing in hospitalised older adults, increasing the risk of adverse clinical outcomes. The aim of this study was to ascertain the key factors affecting physician prescriber implementation of pharmacists' medication appropriatene...

Introduction: The SENATOR trial intervention aimed to optimise pharmacological therapy for multi-morbid older adults in hospital with the provision of recommendations based on STOPP/START criteria and drug interactions. Even though inappropriate prescribing in renal impairment can cause adverse drug reactions (ADRs), the SENATOR software did not ai...

Objective To examine the effect of optimising drug treatment on drug related hospital admissions in older adults with multimorbidity and polypharmacy admitted to hospital. Design Cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting 110 clusters of inpatient wards within university based hospitals in four European countries (Switzerland, Netherlands, Belg...

When this paper was first published, there were errors in Figure 1 and Table 3. These errors have now been corrected online. In Figure 1, the text that read “No data available/lost to follow-up n = 56” should have read “No data available/lost to follow-up n = 40”. In Table 3, the text reading “Mortality (all-cause) within 30 days of randomization”...

Polypharmacy is very common in older adults and increases the risk of inappropriate and unsafe prescribing for older adults. Older adults, particularly women (who make up the majority of this age group), are at the greatest risk for drug-related harm. Therefore, optimising drug prescribing for older people is very important. Identifying potentially...

Objectives: We aimed to establish an explicit list of potentially clinically significant drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in people aged >65 years. Design: A preliminary list of potentially clinically significant DDIs was compiled, based on 154 DDIs identified from literature review. Subsequently, a 2-round online Delphi survey was undertaken with a...

PurposeTo describe the objectives, methods and expected impact of an international consortium (iKASCADE) whose purpose is to improve drug safety for older adults by addressing prescribing cascades through a sex and gender lens.Methods To create a comprehensive, internationally relevant inventory of prescribing cascades affecting older adults, the c...

Background The Irish healthcare system is currently recognised as being understaffed and under-resourced due to historic underfunding and the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. This descriptive study investigated healthcare providers’ perceptions of the safety culture in a large Irish teaching hospital.AimThe aim of this study was to in...

Background Older adults with cancer frequently have other co-morbidities requiring prescription pharmacotherapy. The objectives of this study were to identify the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), severe drug interactions (SDIs) and associated risk factors in these patients. Materials and Methods This twelve-month prospec...

Background Frailty and adverse drug effects are linked in the fact that polypharmacy is correlated with the severity of frailty; however, a causal relation has not been proven in older people with clinically manifest frailty.MethodsA literature search was performed in Medline to detect prospective randomized controlled trials (RCTs) testing the eff...

Background: Healthcare professionals are often reluctant to deprescribe fall-risk-increasing drugs (FRIDs). Lack of knowledge and skills form a significant barrier and furthermore, there is no consensus on which medications are considered as FRIDs despite several systematic reviews. To support clinicians in the management of FRIDs and to facilitate...

Background: Older adults and those with multiple co-morbidities are reported to have more severe clinical manifestations and higher mortality with COVID-19 infection. Detailed examination of patient profiles is required to better understand the clinical course of COVID- 19 in older patients. Aim: To examine the characteristics and out- comes of hos...

Background the prevalence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in hospitalised older patients, their clinical presentations, causative drugs, severity, preventability and measurable outcomes are unclear, ADRs being an increasing challenge to older patient safety. Methods we systematically searched PubMed, Embase, EBSCO-CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, ‘re...

Background Screening Tool of Older Persons Prescriptions in Frail adults with limited life expectancy (STOPPFrail) criteria were developed in 2017 to assist physicians with deprescribing decisions in older people approaching end-of-life. Updating was required to make the tool more practical, patient-centred and complete. Methods a thorough literat...

Background: The EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-5L are two generic health-related quality of life measures, which may be used in clinical and health economic research. They measure impairment in 5 aspects of health: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. The aim of this study was to assess the performance of the EQ-5D-3L...

Background: The SENATOR trial intervention included the provision of computer-generated medication recommendations to physician prescribers caring for hospitalised older adults (≥ 65 years), with the aim of reducing in-hospital adverse drug reactions. Interim data analysis during the trial revealed that the prescriber implementation rates of the co...

Background: findings from a recent qualitative study indicate that the perceived clinical relevance of computer-generated STOPP/START recommendations was a key factor affecting their implementation by physician prescribers caring for hospitalised older adults in the SENATOR trial. Aim: to systematically evaluate the clinical relevance of these reco...

Background: Multi-morbidity and polypharmacy increase the risk of non-trivial adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in older people during hospitalization. Despite this, there are no established interventions for hospital-acquired ADR prevention. Methods: We undertook a pragmatic, multi-national, parallel arm prospective randomized open-label, blinded e...

Introduction: Pharmacists’ recommendations to physicians concerning medication appropriateness significantly reduce potentially inappropriate prescribing, adverse drug reactions, and medication‐related readmissions in hospitalised older adults. Intervention studies with a high proportion of prescribing recommendations implemented are more likely to...

Background The measurement of safety culture, the way in which members of an organisation think about and prioritise safety, in a hospital can provide valuable insight and inform quality improvement strategies.AimsThe aim of this study is to describe the safety culture of a university teaching hospital in the Republic of Ireland.Methods This is a m...

Background: Several approaches to medication optimisation by identifying drug-related problems in older people have been described. Although some interventions have shown reductions in drug-related problems (DRPs), evidence supporting the effectiveness of medication reviews on clinical and economic outcomes is lacking. Application of the STOPP/STA...

Objectives: Older people approaching end of life are commonly prescribed multiple medications, many of which may be inappropriate or futile. Our objective was to examine the effect of applying the STOPPFrail, a recently developed deprescribing tool, to the medication regimens of older patients with advanced frailty. Design: Randomized controlled...

Background: Urinary incontinence is especially common in older age. Non-pharmacological therapies are particularly desirable in this group. Objective: To define optimal evidence-based non-pharmacological, non-surgical therapies for urinary incontinence in older persons. Methods: A Delphi process determined critical outcome measures of interest...

Introduction: STOPP (Screening Tool of Older Persons’ Prescriptions) and START (Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment) are explicit criteria that facilitate medication review in multi-morbid older people in most clinical settings. This review examines the clinical trial evidence pertaining to STOPP/START criteria as an intervention. Areas cove...

Background Older people with advanced frailty are among the highest consumers of prescription medications. When life expectancy is limited, the use of multiple medications may be unnecessary or burdensome. STOPPFrail criteria were recently developed to assist clinicians with deprescribing decisions in frail older people approaching end-of-life. The...

Background Older people with advanced frailty are commonly prescribed lengthy, burdensome medication regimens. When life expectancy is likely to be limited, many of the prescribed drugs may be inappropriate. STOPPFrail Criteria were developed in 2016 to assist clinicians with deprescribing decisions in frail older people with limited life expectanc...

Background Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are common and have serious repercussions for older-adults. This descriptive-analysis elucidates clinical presentations, severity and responsible drugs of incident ADRs in the SENATOR (Software ENgine for the Assessment & optimization of drug and non-drug Therapy in Older peRsons) phase I feasibility study....

Background The objectives of this study were to identify the prevalence of severe drug interactions (SDIs) and potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs) in older adults with cancer. Methods A 12-month prospective observational study of patients ≥65 years admitted to an oncology centre was conducted. SDIs were assessed using Stockley’s interac...

Background With increasing numbers of older multi-morbid people being exposed to polypharmacy, research needs to focus on medication-related outcomes affecting quality-of-life (QoL). This study examines older-patients’ medication-related QoL (MRQoL), its relationship to medication burden/complexity, frailty, health-related QoL (HRQoL) and potential...

Introduction: Multimorbidity and polypharmacy are important risk factors for drug-related hospital admissions (DRAs). DRAs are often linked to prescribing problems (overprescribing and underprescribing), as well as non-adherence with drug regimens for different reasons. In this trial, we aim to assess whether a structured medication review compare...

Purpose STOPPFrail criteria highlight instances of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) in frailer older adults with poor 1-year survival prognosis. The objectives of this study were to (i) determine the proportion of older adults requiring long-term nursing care in whom STOPPFrail criteria are applicable, (ii) measure the prevalence of STO...

OBJECTIVES Accurate prognostic information can enable patients and physicians to make better healthcare decisions. The Hospital‐patient One‐year Mortality Risk (HOMR) model accurately predicted mortality risk (concordance [C] statistic = .92) in adult hospitalized patients in a recent study in North America. We evaluated the performance of the HOMR...

Abstract Objectives Nonpharmacologic therapies are often recommended as a first-line treatment for orthostatic hypotension (OH). However, the true effect of nonpharmacologic therapy remains unclear, particularly in the older population. We undertook a systematic review evaluating the efficacy of nonpharmacologic interventions in older people with O...

Introduction: The intervention in the SENATOR multicentre randomised-controlled trial included the provision of computer-generated medication recommendations to physician prescribers caring for hospitalised older adults (≥65 years), with the aim of reducing adverse drug reactions in this patient cohort. Interim data analysis during the trial reveal...

Introduction: Findings from a recent qualitative study have suggested that the clinical relevance of computer-generated STOPP/START recommendations was a key factor affecting their implementation by prescribers in the SENATOR randomised-controlled trial (RCT).[1] Aims: The aims of this study were, firstly, to systematically evaluate the clinical re...

Introduction: Safety culture – the way in which an organisation contemplates and prioritises safety – is measured using surveys such as the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) (1). These surveys calculate healthcare providers’ ‘scores’ in several dimensions of safety culture. However, few qualitative studies have been carried out to investigate th...

PurposeThe efficacy of non-pharmacological stroke rehabilitation approaches for older stroke survivors is largely unknown, particularly in relation to psychosocial outcomes such as quality of life. This systematic review examined the evidence for such interventions as part of the Optimal Evidence-Based Non-Drug Therapies in Older Persons (ONTOP) pr...

Background: Our goal was to determine (a) the prevalence of multimorbidity and polypharmacy in patients with cancer and (b) the prevalence, predictability, and preventability of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) causing/contributing to hospitalization. Materials and methods: We conducted a 12-month prospective observational study of patients aged ≥1...

Purpose Older people with advanced frailty are among the highest consumers of medications. When life expectancy is limited, some of these medications are likely to be inappropriate. The aim of this study was to compare STOPPFrail, a concise, easy-to-use, deprescribing tool based on explicit criteria, with gold standard, systematic geriatrician-led...

Objectives: to compare the survival of ART and a conventional restorative technique (CT) for restoring carious lesions in older adults after 5 years. Methods: In this parallel randomised controlled clinical trial, 219 independently-living adults were recruited from a dental hospital/community and a geriatric day hospital. Ninety-nine patients wh...