The elderly are more susceptible to adverse drugs effects due to a variety of factors, such as excessive and concomitant use of several drugs, administration errors, physiological changes in the body that alter the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. In order to determine the main therapeutic classes involved in hospital admissions of elderly people due to intoxication and adverse drug effects, as well as major health problems related to these events, 9,793 hospitalizations of people aged 60 or over registered in the Hospital Information System of the Unified Health System (SIH-SUS) in the period of 2004 to 2008 were analyzed. Unspecified drugs, systemic antibiotics, psychotropics, psychoactives, antiepileptics, sedatives, hypnotics and antiparkinsonians accounted for 57% of the total of admissions analyzed. Injuries and falls were the main health problems related to intoxication and adverse drug effects. Hospitalizations due to injuries were associated with analgesic, antipyretic and antirheumatic non-opioid. Falls were associated with systemic antibiotics, contradicting studies which point out psychotropic drugs as the main drug involved in these events. The results reflect the growing trend of problems associated with drug use by elderly people. It was verified that the consumption profile alone is not sufficient to explain the concentration of cases of the major therapeutic classes. We suggest the adoption of more effective programs of pharmacovigilance, capable of intervening at different stages of drug use: prescribing, dispensing, marketing, administration and compliance.
