ABSTRACT
There is a wide body of agreed knowledge about the appropriate prescribing of medicines and we attempted to tap this to make assessments of the prescribed medicines taken by our sample of elderly people. To do this a series of classifications was drawn up in collaboration with a clinical pharmacologist and applied by two pharmacists. One was an experienced drug-information pharmacist who had also worked in the community; the other was an experienced hospital pharmacist who had done some community and drug-information work. Their main reference in making the assessments was the BNF, but they also referred to a number of other sources listed in Appendix 3. The assessments they made were limited and defined. Pharmacists were used because they have a specialized, although limited, knowledge of this field and they are more likely than general practitioners to have easy and direct access to the body of agreed knowledge. All the assessments were made independently by the two pharmacists. Any discrepancies were identified and discussed. Any disagreements that could not be resolved from the references were referred to the clinical pharmacologist who had advised on the initial construction and definition of the classifications.
