More pills harm older patients

Hyderabad: Geriatric research shows that prescribing too many drugs to older patients leads to multiple complications, something doctors should be wary of.

Multiple studies carried out in the United States have shown that these drugs lead to serious adverse reactions, leading to poor quality of life, said Dr K.T. Nathan, assistant professor of Pharmacy Practice from Wegman’s School of Pharmacy.

A research carried out on 50 senior citizens over the last three years has shown that too many drugs increases the body’s toxicity, leading to side-effects.

With 600 million senior citizens worldwide and the number to double by 2025, researchers are looking at geriatric drugs where the body is able to cope with the effect of drugs.

Senior pharmacist Dr Sai Nath said, “There is a need for a separate line of drugs as there are different diseases which require a targeted manner of dealing. Also, since a patient’s health declines rapidly, is it justified to put in so much toxic material in the body which would cause more complications and organ failures?”

At the same time, in geriatric care, lifestyle issues continue to plague the treating doctors as there are smoking, alcohol, obesity and also other comorbidities like diabetes and hypertension, which have to be dealt with.

With a gamut of diseases among senior citizens, there is a need to prescribe “additional drugs” with caution to ensure that the body is able to recover rather than get damaged further.