Updated Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults Released
The American Geriatrics Society announced the release of the updated Beers Criteria on March 1, 2012. The revised, expanded, and evidence-based list can help providers identifiy medications that pose risks outweighing their potential benefits for people 65 and older.
A wide range of medications—some relatively new 
and others long available—can cause serious side effects and other adverse events in people 65 and older if not prescribed with care. The Beers Criteria, last revised in 2003, appears today in the early online edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and is available, with additional professional and public education materials, at www.americangeriatrics.org.
By identifying medications that are potentially harmful for older adults, the 2012 AGS Beers Criteria can help clinicians more safely prescribe for older patients. More than 40% of people aged 65 and older take five or more medications according to a 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and each year more than a third of them will suffer a drug side effect or other adverse drug event (ADE). Estimates from studies published in JAMA (2003) and the American Journal of Medicine (2005) conclude that 27% of ADEs in primary care settings and 42% in long-term care facilities are preventable. A 2000-2001 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey estimates healthcare expenditures related to the use of potentially inappropriate medications at approximately $7.2 billion.
The late Mark H. Beers, MD, a geriatrician and editor of The Merck Manuals and The Merck Manual of Geriatrics, first published the Beers Criteria in 1991. In 2011, the AGS convened a panel of experts in geriatrics and pharmacotherapy to revise and expand the criteria, based on the latest research. The society plans to update the AGS Beers Criteria every three years.
The AGS has received funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help support the development and dissemination of the criteria to the broadest possible audience of clinicians.
