[Polypharmacotherapy in the elderly hypertensive patient].

We asked 53 elderly hypertensives from our outpatient clinic which and how many drugs they took, and analysed factors that could have affected the intake, as sex, age and school instruction. The most frequent drug groups found were, in decreasing order, antihypertensives, benzodiazepines, nitrates and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. 53.3% of the patients took only angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and/or calcium-channel antagonists as antihypertensive drugs. Twenty four patients used occasional medications, sometimes as much as 6 different drugs, specially analgesics, antipyretics and anti-inflammatory agents. These patients took, in mean, 5.2 different drugs daily, 2.1 of which antihypertensive, in a total of 8.5 pills. Females took more drugs (9.4 +/- 3.6 pills per day against 7.1 +/- 3.0 in the male gender, Z < 0.03). Age and school instruction did not affect the intake.