Health requirements of the aging
population, the importance of which is increasing with each passing day due to
the changing population structure in the world and Turkey, has gained a place
as the most important health policy today. In elderliness when several diseases
can coexist simultaneously, it is very important to properly select among an
increasing number of drugs and to use them in safe dose ranges. In elderly individuals,
drug side effects, overutilization of drug, and cognitive problems such as
forgetting and comprehension are common. It is therefore difficult to
distinguish whether the symptoms observed in an elderly individual are drug
side effects or the interaction between drug and disease. Rational drug
management in the elderly includes starting treatments at a low dose and
increasing the dose slowly, that is “start low, go slow”, and continuing with
as low dose as possible to avoid unnecessary drug doses. In this context, clinical staff should be
able to closely monitor the effects and side effects of drgus administered to
elderly individuals, provide the required training to the patient and family,
and be able to recognize cognitive changes early.
Primary Language | English |
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Journal Section | Research Article |
Authors | |
Publication Date | July 17, 2019 |
Published in Issue | Year 2019 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 |
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/journal-file/21433