Polypharmacotherapy in Clinical Gerontology

Overview

Multimorbidity frequently develops in old age and it is usually accompanied with pharmacotherapy of elderlypatients. The growing number of seniors and comparatively low attention given to this reality among the medicalcommunity makes the problem highly significant for the practical medicine. Solution requires in the broad medicalcommunity a deeper knowledge of gerontopharmacotherapy and of its specific features, including the pharmacodynamicsand pharmacokinetics in elderly organism. Non-geriatric physicians will face in their daily clinical praxisthe questions of drug interactions and undesirable general and local side effects. Moreover, some foods, beveragesor preservatives can influence the pharmacological effect. Due to multimorbidity in the senescence, such problemscan be linked to large geriatric syndromes (instability with downfalls, immobility, decubitus, incontinency, intellectualand sensory defects of vision and hearing).

Key words:
Geriatrics, multimorbidity, polypharmacotherapy, drug interactions, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics,compliance.