ATLANTA (Reuters Health) - About one third of potentially dangerous medication errors in the elderly are preventable, suggesting that better error-preventing measures such as computerized alert systems are needed, according to a report presented here on Sunday.

"The elderly are an especially vulnerable population because they are on so many more medications than are younger patients," said Dr. Jerry Gurwitz, at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. "Although these errors may also occur in younger patients," said Gurwitz, of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Over a one-year period, Gurwitz and colleagues collected data on about 27,500 patients aged 65 years or older. They found 1,202 medication errors by examining a variety of sources, including emergency room notes, healthcare provider reports, electronic clinic notes and computer-generated signals.

The yield of medication errors was highest for problems detected in emergency department notes, but lowest when it came to healthcare providers reporting their own mistakes, the researchers found.

Gurwitz and colleagues are now undertaking a study to determine which drugs contribute to the most errors.

"Perhaps the most common drug errors arise from mixing the blood-thinning drug warfarin with other medications," Gurwitz told Reuters Health at the meeting. He pointed out that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin and ibuprofen, are a problem as well.

According to Gurwitz, computerized warning systems could help decrease the number of medication errors.

"These systems could help a physician get information about the patient, the other medications they are taking and laboratory values, so that errors could be prevented before the patient even sees the drug," he said.

Patients can help their physician avoid making errors by making sure the physician knows which drugs they are taking, Gurwitz suggested.

"They should also ask their physicians whether their drugs have any special side effects that they should be concerned about," he said.

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