Abstract
Parkinson's disease is a progressive debilitating neurodegenerative disorder affecting one’s motor and non-motor functions. While several different effective medications are available to improve symptoms and patient’s quality of life, patients are often prone to medication errors with potential adverse effects such as motor fluctuations, dopamine withdrawal syndrome or akinetic crisis.
This is a retrospective study of 55 patients with Parkinson’s disease who presented to Campbelltown hospital New South Wales between December 2022 and February 2023, exploring the prevalence of medication errors, types of medication errors and factors that are associated with such errors, aiming to reduce such in future.
This study shows that iatrogenic medication errors are common in the hospital setting (61.8%) with omission errors being the most common (52.7%), followed by incorrect dosage (10.9%), incorrect timing (7.3%) and incorrect strength (7.3%). Multivariate analyses demonstrated significantly more errors in the Emergency and departments other than Geriatrics and Neurology departments.
This study sheds light on the alarming prevalence of iatrogenic medication errors in patients with Parkinson’s Disease presenting to hospital, hence reinforcing the urgent need for a well-designed intervention program to reduce such errors. Further prospective studies are required to assess the clinical effects of medication errors and the effectiveness of such intervention.
