Current Issue : July-September Volume : 2015 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 2 Articles
Prescribing medications is a complex task. More than that, it is difficult to prescribe to geriatrics. Why because they suffered a lot due multiple co-morbidity, reduced pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes. For that clinicians prescribe multiple drugs. That leads to suboptimal prescribing, drug-drug interactions, drug-disease interactions, adverse drug reactions, decrease quality of life, increase more hospital stay and cost and finally death may occur. To avoid those problems some criteria’s and lists are helpful. Education is needed for physicians to update the knowledge regarding gerontology. Clinical pharmacist should play an active role to minimize the errors occurred during prescribing....
There is a considerable increase in the elderly population in both developed and developing countries. The term geriatric refers to who are having age?65 years. The human body function will decline as age increase and changes in reduced body water, reduced renal and hepatic function and increased body fat. Prescribing is a complex task and in geriatrics it is too complex. The main aim and objectives of this study is to assess knowledge of the pharmacy students on geriatric population is either good or least and to know the learning needs and challenges facing by pharmacists to bring better geriatric care. The male pharmacy students were 20 (29%) and females were 48 (71%). 91% of pharmacy students were aware of poly pharmacy, inappropriate prescribing and underutilization. The familiarity with Beers criteria and PRISCUS list of drugs was 14.7%. 32.3% of pharmacy students thought, existence of appropriate list in India to treat the older people. 29.4% of students reported, Benzodiazepines were appropriate to treat geriatric population. 100% students reported yes as there is need of change dose and dosage adjustment. 92.6% said yes, for the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes as age advances. Regarding the prevalence the students 90% said as the prevalence of diseases increases with age. 100% of students who participated in the study expressed interest in receiving continuing pharmacy education on geriatric prospective and practices. Inappropriate prescribing practices can be minimized when well-trained clinicians and clinical pharmacist are available in health care setups. The new Pharm.D (Doctor of pharmacy) program may be the answer to the problem of this inappropriate practice in geriatric population. Exposure to continuing education in geriatric pharmacotherapy in the workplace is the most consistent determinant of professional performance to improve drug outcomes in the elderly....
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