Affiliation
Department of Medicine, University College Cork, University Hospital, Wilton, Ireland. denis.omahony@hse.ieIssue Date
2011-07MeSH
AgedAged, 80 and over
Aging
Drug Therapy
Evidence-Based Medicine
Frail Elderly
Humans
Inappropriate Prescribing
Life Expectancy
Palliative Care
Patient Selection
Polypharmacy
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Risk Assessment
Secondary Prevention
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Show full item recordCitation
Pharmacotherapy at the end-of-life. 2011, 40 (4):419-22 Age AgeingPublisher
Age and ageingJournal
Age and ageingDOI
10.1093/ageing/afr059PubMed ID
21622981Abstract
Older people reaching end-of-life status are particularly at risk from inter-related adverse effects of pharmacotherapy, including polypharmacy, inappropriate medications and adverse drug events. These adverse effects of pharmacotherapy may be highly detrimental, as well as highly expensive. End-of-life pharmacotherapy is sometimes perceived to be complex and challenging, probably unnecessarily. This relates in part to the poorly developed evidence base and lack of high-quality research in this area. In this article, we deal with some of the key issues relating to pharmacotherapy in end-of-life patients, namely (i) the guiding principles of drug selection, (ii) the main drugs and drug classes that are best avoided, (iii) the benefits of 'oligopharmacy' (i.e. deliberate avoidance of polypharmacy) in end-of-life patients.Item Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
1468-2834ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1093/ageing/afr059
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