Drug Therapy for the Elderly (PDF)

With people aged 65 years and older currently making up the fastest growing age group throughout the world, the demographic revolution of an aging society will inevitably lead to increased pressure to develop a rationalistic and age-tailored process of diagnosis and treatment among the elderly. As aging people often suffer from several chronic diseases and are being treated with multiple medications concurrently, unwanted drug interactions occur more frequently. Whereas recent approaches have recommended to remove particular drugs from the medication regimen to avoid adverse effects, Drug Therapy for the Elderly underlines both indispensable and dispensable elements of drug treatment, providing the practitioner with:- Background information on the elderly population regarding their needs for particular drugs (with an eye to frailty, co-morbidity patterns, and special sensitivities regarding drug metabolism and excretion)- Practical advice about drug treatment surveillance parameters in the elderly- In-depth discussion of drugs in relation to the elderly with specific diagnoses- Integration of multimorbidity/polypharmacy situations into prioritization schemes- A plan for how to deal with the complexity of polypharmacy situations in a five-minute consultationAn original classification of drugs is proposed by the editor which relates the power of effects, prognostic data, and tolerability to a prioritization scoring system. This approach is the first to not only provide a negative listing, but also integrates positive data into an overall assessment for drugs fit for the aged. Therefore, Drug Therapy for the Elderly serves as a timely reference for a wide array of physicians.

From the reviews:

“This book explores the issues specific to prescribing medications to the elderly. … This book does require some basic understanding of physiology, but it is fascinating reading for clinicians with that basic understanding. … It does a very impressive job of covering what happens in aging. … This is a most interesting book. It has tremendous value in academic settings with medical students, social workers, nurses, etc., as it is one of the more complete books on the subject of therapies for the elderly.” (Vincent F. Carr, Doody’s Review Service, January, 2013)