Research Paper on:
Polypharmacy and Elderly, Reducing Risk and Incidence

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
interventions to address this problem. Organizing Construct: This is a complex topic. Therefore, background and a description of how pharmacological processes change as people age is provided in order  to facilitate understanding before describing the current literature. Conclusions: The research indicates that educational interventions, both for primary health care practitioners and for patient/caregivers, provide beneficial results. Furthermore, research  supports collaboration with pharmacists and pharmacologists, as well as the use of tools, such as the Beers criteria and computerized software programs. Clinical Relevance: The rapidly increasing number  of elderly patients exposed to polypharmacy in order to control multiple chronic conditions makes it crucial for primary care health practitioners to understand the issues involved and maintain currency on  the implications of the latest research. This article aids in achieving this goal. Key words: Polypharmacy, PIMS, Beers criteria, ADRs. Polypharmacy and Elderly, Reducing Risk and Incidence The rapidly  increasing numbers of Americans over age 65 presents one of the greatest challenges faced by the healthcare system and by primary health care practitioners. This demographic trend results not only  from the size of the Baby Boomer generation, which was born after World War II and is currently reaching their sixties, and also by the medical advances that allow individuals  with chronic conditions to live longer, despite the presence of these conditions. However, the pharmaceutical innovations that make this possible frequently entail seniors being prescribed medical regimens that entail multiple  drugs. The following paper examines current literature on the problem of polypharmacy among elderly patients in order to provide the information that primary care practitioners should know in order  to address this problem and design interventions that can reduce inappropriate prescribing and thus reduce the incidence of unnecessary and redundant medications and thereby decrease the risk of ADR events