Drugs & aging
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Medication non-adherence can exacerbate disease severity, leading to impairments that interfere with self-care activities in older adults, and, ultimately, death. Elder self-neglect is the most common report to Adult Protective Services (APS) across the USA and is a significant risk factor for early mortality. These individuals often suffer from multiple comorbid diseases that require careful management, but for various reasons they are unwilling or unable to provide themselves with the self-care resources necessary for maintaining health and safety. No studies have assessed whether medication adherence is associated with elder self-neglect. ⋯ Medication non-adherence is a very prevalent problem among older adults who are self-neglecting, and higher non-adherence levels were associated with the number of medications being consumed as well as lower physical function. Physicians who find high rates of medication non-adherence in their patients should consider barriers to adherence, including a large number of medications, lower physical function and the possibility of elder self-neglect. Future efforts should focus on studying the underlying reasons for medication non-adherence in larger samples of older adults who are self-neglecting. This would facilitate the development of interventions to reduce medication non-adherence in this population.
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In the treatment of chronic malignant and non-malignant pain, opioids are used as strong analgesics. Frail elderly patients often have multiple co-morbidities and use multiple medicines, leading to an increased risk of clinically relevant drug-drug and drug-disease interactions. Age-related changes and increased frailty may lead to a less predictable drug response, increased drug sensitivity, and potential harmful drug effects. ⋯ Nevertheless, tapentadol may prove to be a useful analgesic for the treatment of chronic pain in frail elderly persons because of its possible better gastrointestinal tolerability. In the treatment of chronic pain in the frail elderly, the opioids of first choice are buprenorphine, fentanyl, hydromorphone, morphine and oxycodone. In order to improve the convenience for elderly patients, the controlled-release oral dosage forms and transdermal formulations are preferred.
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An increasing number of older patients are prescribed proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). However, the extent of inappropriate PPI prescribing in this group is largely unknown. ⋯ Inappropriate PPI prescribing in older patients is frequent and independently associated with co-morbidities and dementia. A targeted in-hospital educational strategy can significantly and safely reduce inappropriate PPI prescribing in the short term.
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On 31 March 2009, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provided revised guidance for meeting compliance in the evaluation and management of pain in nursing home residents, known as F-Tag 309. ⋯ The implementation of revisions to the surveyors' interpretive guidelines for F-Tag 309 improved recognition and management of pain as well as analgesic use in nursing home residents with documented non-cancer pain. Use of directed language as part of the surveyors' interpretive guidelines may be a viable approach to stimulating improvements in pain documentation and management.
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Cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) are a mainstay treatment for individuals with dementia. ChEIs may worsen airflow obstruction because of their pro-cholinergic properties. ⋯ In a large cohort of elderly individuals with COPD and dementia, new users of ChEIs had a similar risk for adverse pulmonary outcomes as those who were not receiving ChEIs.