Drug Therapy for the Elderly

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 in order to provide an overall assessment of drugs suitable for the aged. In view of the multimorbidity and polypharmacy situations experienced by elderly patients, this book takes into account the special needs and requirements shown by this group, thus serving as a timely reference for physicians who treat the elderly. Drug Therapy for the Elderly provides 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 paramters in the elderly - In-depth discussion of drugs in relation to the elderly with specific diagnoses - Integration of multimorbidity/polypharmacy situations into prioritization schems - A plan for how to deal with the complexity of polypharmacy situations in a five-minute consultation An original classification of drugs is proposed by the editor which relates the power of effects, prognostic data, and tolerability to a prioritization scoring with labels ranging from A (indispensible, clear-cut benefit for efficacy/safety ration proven even in elderly patients for a given indiacation, unanimous morbidity and/or mortality data) to D (avoid in elderly, delete first). Whereas current lists intend to eliminate unsafe drugs for the elderly, this novel approach underlines both indispensable and dispensable elements of drug therapy. This approach is the first to not only provide a negative liesting, but also integrates positive data into an overall assessment for drugs fit for the aged. The demographic revolution of an aging society will lead to increased pressure to come to a rationalistic and age-tailored process of diagnosing and treating increasingly complex situations in the elderly. Drug Therapy for the Elderly is focused on the most important treatment modality in medicine and serves as a timely reference for a wide array of physicians.