Principal alterations to drug kinetics and dynamics in the elderly.
People over the age of 64 constitute 15% of the population in the UK, yet they consume approximately 30% of all National Health Service drug prescriptions, and adverse drug reactions account for 10.4% of all admissions to geriatric medical assessment wards. Many published studies concerning the pharmacology of old age are seriously flawed. Problems include failure to measure the drug bio-availability and the selection of subjects with overt or sub-clinical disease. It is difficult to make general rules about the effect of ageing on drug kinetics and dynamics. Each drug has to be tested separately.
Leslie
C
C
Department of Geriatric Medicine, Stobhill General Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
Scott
P J
PJ
Caird
F I
FI
D000042:Absorption; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000378:metabolism; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D010599:Pharmacokinetics; D011485:Protein Binding