title: Prescribing in the elderly.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Balancing medication use in the elderly is a complex task, made more difficult by the physiological changes and increased burden of disease seen with aging.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article reviews recent literature and outlines the basic principles and problems of medication use in older people, and provides potential strategies to optimise prescribing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Competing risks and benefits complicate medication use in the elderly. General practitioners need to be aware of these risks and benefits in order to tailor the most appropriate treatment regimen to each individual patient.
authors.affiliation: Department of Aged Care and Rehabilitation Austin Health/Northern Health, Melbourne, Victoria. edwina.holbeach@nh.org.au
authors.forename: Edwina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Holbeach
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yates
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D001315:Australia; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D058006:General Practice; D006801:Humans; D010349:Patient Compliance; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012196:Review Literature as Topic