Ms Máire O'Dwyer:

My study examined medication use and patterns of multiple medicines in older people with intellectual disability. We found there was a very high rate of polypharmacy and excessive polypharmacy. A fifth of the population in wave 1 were taking ten or more medicines, which contrasts with a figure of about 2% in The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. We also found a very different pattern of use of medicines. Our most frequently reported medicines were anti-psychotics, which were reported by 43% of the population, followed by anti-epileptics and laxatives. This reflects, to some extent, the different pattern of morbidity in people with intellectual disability, with a higher prevalence of mental health and neurological conditions. We also noted less use of agents to treat cardiac conditions while in the general population, the focus in polypharmacy and appropriate medicines would be more in that area. There needs to be more focus on appropriateness of prescribing and examining this.