Search Results (4)

Because the number of elderly people is increasing worldwide, and the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular diseases increase with age, in current clinical practice we are faced with a large number of geriatric patients requiring oral anticoagulant treatment. Our review highlights some of the particularities of using direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in the geriatric population. We focused on the difficulties of managing DOAC treatment in the presence of geriatric syndromes. We highlighted the practical steps needed to overcome the challenges related to the risk of falling, cognitive impairment, swallowing disorders, and polypragmasy to improve patient care. We provided data to help guide the choice of anticoagulant and dose. Full article

Background: The safety of pharmacotherapy for geriatric patients is an essential aspect of the demographic perspective in view of the increasing size of this population. Non-opioid analgesics (NOAs) are among the most popular and often overused over-the-counter medications (OTC). The reasons for drug abuse are common in the geriatric population: musculoskeletal disorders, colds, inflammation and pain of various origins. The popularity of self-medication and the ability to easily access OTC drugs outside the pharmacy creates the danger of their misuse and the incidence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). The survey included 142 respondents aged 50–90 years. The relationship between the prevalence of ADRs and the NOAs used, age, presence of chronic diseases, and place of purchasing and obtaining information about the mentioned drugs were evaluated. The results of the observations were statistically analyzed using Statistica 13.3. The most commonly used NOAs among the elderly included paracetamol, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and ibuprofen. Patients consumed the medications for intractable headaches, toothaches, fevers, colds and joint disorders. Respondents indicated the pharmacy as the main location for purchasing medications, and the physician as the source of information for selecting the therapy. ADRs were reported most frequently to the physician, and less frequently to the pharmacist and nurse. More than one-third of respondents indicated that the physician during the consultation did not take a medical history and did not ask about concomitant diseases. It is necessary to extend pharmaceutical care to geriatric patients that includes advice on adverse drug reactions, especially drug interactions. Due to the popularity of self-medication, and the availability of NOAs, long-term measures should be taken to increase the role of pharmacists in providing effective, safe health care to seniors. We are targeting pharmacists with this survey to draw attention to the problem of the prevalence of selling NOAs to geriatric patients. Pharmacists should educate seniors about the possibility of ADRs and approach patients with polypragmasy and polypharmacy with caution. Pharmaceutical care is an essential aspect in the treatment of geriatric patients, which can contribute to better results in their existing treatment and increase the safety of medication intake. Therefore, it is important to improve the development of pharmaceutical care in Poland in order to enhance patient outcomes. Full article

Neuroleptics and antiepileptics are excreted in saliva, which can, therefore, be very useful in determining their concentration in the body. This study presents a method developed to simultaneously identify five neuroleptics—olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, aripiprazole, and clozapine—and the antiepileptic carbamazepine together with their metabolites: N-demethyl olanzapine, norquetiapine, 9-OH-risperidone, dehydroaripiprazole, N-desmethylclozapine, and carbamazepine-10,11 epoxide. Chlordiazepoxide was used as the internal standard. Strata-X-C columns were used for isolation of the compounds. Chromatographic analysis was carried out using UHPLC with a diode array detector (DAD). A mixture of acetonitrile and water with the addition of formic acid and 0.1% triethylamine was used as the mobile phase. The developed method was validated by determining the linearity for all analytes in the range 10–1000 ng/mL and the value of R² > 0.99. Intra- and inter-day precision were also determined, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) value in both cases did not exceed 15%. To determine the usefulness of the developed method, saliva samples were collected from 40 people of both sexes treated with the tested active substances both in monotherapy and in polypragmasy. In all cases, the active substances tested were identified. Full article

Asthma is a common disease among elderly persons. The prevalence of asthma in subjects aged over 65 years is 6.5–17%. The diagnosis of asthma is based on typical symptoms with confirmatory information gained from physical examination and laboratory studies. Respiratory symptoms are less specific in older people. Additionally the clinical manifestations of asthma is complicated by co-morbidities, polypragmasy, underreporting of symptoms, cognitive impairment. Moreover, elderly patients are sometimes unable to perform pulmonary function tests. Consequently, discriminating asthma from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is difficult in this group of patients. The difficulties in differential diagnosis of asthma in older adults entails that disease in the elderly is often underdiagnosed and inadequately treated. Full article