Studying co-medication patterns:the impact of definitions

Purpose To show the necessity of distinguishing several patterns of drug prescribing that may lead to co-medication. It is demonstrated how these different patterns can be investigated using large databases containing pharmacy data or reimbursement data. Methods Two examples illustrate how the particular pattern of co-medication studied will influence the reported proportion of patients having co-medication, the use of antidepressants among people using anticonvulsants, and the use of antihistamines among people receiving penicillines. Results Depending on definition and period considered, the... Mehr ...