Editor's Correspondence:  COMMENTS AND OPINIONS

In reply

We thank Bollu et al for their reaction to our article on the HARM study.¹ They wonder whether we have given consideration to the Beers list in our study. We have used available literature on medication appropriateness for the assessment of the hospital admissions. To determine their preventability, we used pharmacotherapeutic guidelines and specific protocols for elderly patients, including the Beers list. However, we did not look specifically at the medications on the Beers list, but to all medications the patients used in relation to the adverse drug event that caused the hospital admission. Those medications also included OTC and herbal medicines. Although certain nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are available as OTC medications in the Netherlands, most of the hospital admissions for adverse drug events from antiplatelet and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were due to the use of prescribed medications. Herbal medicines did not cause any hospital admissions in our study.