Prescribing drugs for the elderly may be more harmful than useful

Abstract EN

The elderly are by far the largest consumers of prescribed drugs, taking more than half of all drugs supplied by the health services.

Patient compliance is notoriously poor, and it gets worse as the fre،|U€nc v of doses and the multiplicity of drugs increase.

Elderly patients are more than usually prone to adverse drug reactions because of their gener-ally more extensive previous drug exposure.

Drugs should be prescribed to the elderly with special care because of the complications they develop in the aging process, and only when needed.

Physician should not give any drug blindly prior to diagnosis and to avoid polypharmacy.

As well as understanding the plamacodynamics and drug interaction of drugs by the physician prior to prescribing is of paramount importance.