[Drug prescriptions for the elderly].

The assessment od drugs taken by elderly people remains a difficult subject since epidemiological data on drug intake in this population is very limited. In a study undertaken in the context of the PAQUID project, drug use was screened in a group of 3,777 elderly people living at home in the Gironde and Dordogne regions of south-west France. In this group, 89.1% of subjects take at least one drug per day, with an average daily intake of 4.1 drugs by 41% of the group. One third of these elderly people take a benzodiazepine drug. Excessive intake of drugs by elderly people is a phenomenon encountered in Scandinavia and Italy but not in the United Kingdom.