Abstract

Background: The potentially inappropriate prescribing relates to cases of patients who were prescribed a treatment(s) that would bring them more harm than benefit. Objective: The aim of this paper was to give brief introduction to phenomenon of potentially inappropropriate prescribing. Methods: Narrative review. Results: Whether a prescribed therapy could be designated to be inappropriate or not depends on specific criteria, that could be classified as explicit and impicit. The explicit criteria could be applied directly and do not require expertise of an investigator. The implicit criteria require interpretation of a prescription case by an experienced clinical pharmacologist, being more subjective, but also more sensitive and specific. Conclusion: Analysis of cases of potentially inappropriate prescribing is necessary prerequisite for success of corrective measures aimed to improve quality of healthcare.

Key words: inappropriate prescribing; criteria; rational therapy; quality of healthcare