Drug-related Problems in Elderly Patients - A Review

Abstract

Background and aims: Drug inefficiency, undesirable medication effects, overdosing, underdosing, and drug interactions are all common among the elderly. The main goal of this review is to identify, classify, and evaluate drug-related problems among geriatric patients.

Methods: Earlier studies examined drug-related problems in elderly patients to gain a better understanding of the identification, classification, and evaluation of drug-related problems among elderly patients

Results: According to the study, elderly patients generally have more than one chronic disease and usually they are prescribed as polypharmacy (more than five drugs) which may cause a huge number of drug-related problems in elderly patients such as drug-drug interaction, drug-food interaction, drug-disease interactions, adverse drug reactions, side effects, ineffectiveness, drug-disease interactions, etc.

Conclusion: Elderly patients are at high risk of Drug Related Problems (DRPs) due to morbidity-associated polypharmacy, age-related physiologic changes, and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics alterations.