Therapeutic Thursdays: Update of the 2023 American Geriatric Society’s Beers Criteria List for Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIMs) in Older Adults

This 2023 revision of the American Geriatric Society’s Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIMs) in older adults includes major recommendations for the safe use of anticoagulants and for avoiding the initiation of aspirin for primary cardiovascular disease, oral and transdermal estrogens in postmenopausal women, sulfonylureas as first, second or add-on therapy for diabetes, and the use of highly anticholinergic medications. Additional areas that have been updated include how PIMs can exacerbate drug-disease and drug syndromes, important drug-drug interactions, and drugs that require alterations in dosing in renal impairment. Pharmacists should be cognizant of these changes to the AGS Beers Criteria so that they can use this tool to help optimize their older adults’ medication regimens. 

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