Preventing Drug Reactions in the Elderly

Many of the adverse reactions the elderly have to drugs can be prevented. This is Dr. Steven Andrew Davis, Speaking of Health. According to the Centers for Disease Control most unwanted drug reactions are related to the dose of the drug given or how it is taken rather than to some surprise, allergic phenomenon. This means than that if the prescribed dose were different, or if the patient were more carefully monitored or educated, the adverse drug reaction might have been prevented.

Consider now our large population of elderly patients, who, studies have shown have “a higher risk” for developing adverse drug reactions than do persons in the general population.: And the “use of multiple drugs may be the strongest of several factors that predispose older persons to this excess risk.”

So strategy number one for preventing adverse drug reactions among the elderly; limit, where possible, the number of drugs they use. This may also increase what doctors call “patient compliance” -- the ability and willingness to take a drug as prescribed. Not surprisingly, the more drugs a person takes, the lower the compliance at any age.

Taking time to educate elderly patients and their families with regard to their medications should pay off. Currently the rate of adverse drug reactions among the elderly is almost double the rate in the general population. Hence, public health officials’ continuing emphasis on educating health professionals and home caregivers to help reduce adverse drug reactions “and increase medication compliance amount the elderly.” For a copy of this script, visit our web site, speakingofhealth.com. Speaking of Health, I’m Dr. Steven Andrew Davis.