Aspectos relacionados à polifarmácia e à depressão em idosos atendidos em uma instituição de ensino

Abstract

Brazil is going through an accelerate population aging process with greater susceptibility to developing chronic diseases, which leads to polypharmacy among the elderly, which is related to frailty, a situation that can influence mental illnesses such as depression. To evaluate the use of polypharmacy and its influence on depression among seniors. This is an observational, quantitative and descriptive cross-sectional study of the medical records of elderly patients treated at the geriatric clinic at the Medical Specialties Center (CEMEC-CESUPA), between January 2019 and January 2020. Data were collected, with the help of a data collection instrument, which were organized and built with the tools available in Microsoft Word, Excel and Bioestat 5.5 programs. Categorical variables were tested using the chi-square or Fisher’s exact test and results with p≤ 0,05 (bilateral) were considered statistically significant. 496 elderly people were studied, with mean age of 74 years, ranging from 60 to 103 years; about 75,2% were female, 44,2% were married, the average schooling was 6,3 years, with majority having 1 to 4 years of study. The use of five or more medications was identified in 52% of the patients and multimorbidity in 89.9% of the sample. The most frequent morbidities were Systemic Arterial Hypertension, Dyslipidemia and Type II Diabetes Mellitus while the most prevalent drugs were Losartan, Simvastatin and Metformin. The prevalence of depression was 17.1% in the sample, in which it was more associated with females (p=0.018). Polypharmacy was significantly associated with the presence of a diagnosis of depression among the elderly studied (p=0.003) and also with the presence of two or more chronic diseases (p<0.001). It is noted that polypharmacy is present in more than half of the elderly surveyed, positively associated with the diagnosis of depression, making it possible to identify that the majority of patients diagnosed with such morbidity used five or more medications. In addition, the presence of two or more chronic diseases in the elderly undoubtedly contributes to polymedication among seniors.