Drugs and the Elderly

Topic: Drugs and the Elderly
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Problems associated with drugs are common in the ageing population. These glitches may include adverse drug effects, drug ineffectiveness, and drug interactions. Each medical prescription has a definite pharmacokinetic element depending on such considerations as body weight, hepatic function, renal function, body mass index, sex and age (SW, 2007). Coming up with the most efficient pharmacy-therapeutic strategy for elderly patient needs consideration of the pharmacokinetics principles namely: absorption, distribution, and metabolism, and how alterations of pharmacokinetics of a particular medication may be achieved in the aged population bracket. This consideration should also be applied to all prescribed drugs (SN., AJ., & DG., 2011). Common classes of drugs involved are antipsychotics, antidepressants, antiplatelet agents, hypoglycemic drugs, and sedative-hypnotics.
GI blood flow and GI motility are usually reduced by the aging process. Older people also have an elevated gastric pH resulting from Gastric acid secretion. These changes may cause either reduced drug absorption or extra absorption of the drug. Aging further influences the drug distribution patterns in the body. At an old age, the muscle mass has det...