Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 28, 2026
14:57
Preparation of Acute Hippocampal Slices from Rats and Transgenic Mice for the Study of Synaptic Alterations during Aging and Amyloid Pathology
Published on: March 23, 2011
[Psychopharmacotherapy in advanced age]
1Altentagesklinik am Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit, Mannheim. adler@zi-mannheim.de
Der Internist
|December 16, 2003
Summary
Despite new psychopharmacotherapy options, elderly patients often receive older, riskier medications. This review summarizes general and specific treatment aspects for psychiatric disorders in the elderly.
Area of Science:
- Geriatric Psychiatry
- Clinical Pharmacology
Context:
- Psychopharmacotherapy for elderly individuals has advanced with new, well-tolerated drugs.
- However, clinical practice shows limited adoption of these advances.
- Older psychiatric medications with higher risks are still prevalent in elderly patients.
Purpose:
- To summarize general psychopharmacotherapy principles in the elderly.
- To detail special considerations for antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, phase prophylactics, and antidementives.
- To provide evidence-based treatment recommendations for this demographic.
Summary:
- Newly developed psychopharmacological agents offer improved effectiveness and tolerability for elderly patients.
- Despite these advances, many elderly individuals with psychiatric disorders continue to be treated with older medications.
- This practice increases the risk of severe adverse events, including falls and delirium.
Impact:
- Highlights the gap between psychopharmacotherapy advancements and clinical application in geriatric psychiatry.
- Underscores the risks associated with suboptimal medication choices in the elderly.
- Provides a guide for optimizing psychopharmacological treatment in older adults, aiming to reduce adverse events and improve outcomes.
Related Concept Videos
01:26Psychosis: Goals of Pharmacotherapy
Antipsychotic drugs are a crucial treatment method for acute and chronic psychoses, bipolar illness, and behavioral disorders. The selection of these drugs depends on several factors, including the state of the disease, clinical judgment, possible drug interactions, and the patient's sensitivity to adverse effects. In immediate scenarios, such as delirium and dementia, short-term treatment with low doses of high-potency typical or atypical agents can effectively manage symptom exacerbation. For...
01:15Drug Dosing: Geriatric Patients
Elderly individuals encompass a diverse population with varying degrees of age-related physiological changes. Defining the elderly presents challenges, as the geriatric population is often arbitrarily categorized as individuals older than 65. However, many individuals in this group lead active and healthy lives, with an increasing number surpassing 85 years and falling into the older elderly category. Physiological changes associated with aging impact performance capacity and homeostatic...
01:22Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Absorption
As individuals age, their body's physiology evolves, affecting drug pharmacokinetics. The most apparent changes occur in the gastrointestinal tract, where an increase in gastric pH, a delay in gastric emptying, and a reduction in gastrointestinal motility are observed. Remarkably, these changes do not substantially modify the absorption of orally administered drugs, particularly those absorbed via passive diffusion.Transdermal drug delivery emerges as a highly viable method for older adults due...
01:00Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Distribution
Drug distribution in the human body is influenced by several factors, including plasma protein concentration, body composition, blood flow, tissue-protein concentration, and tissue fluid pH. Among these, changes in plasma protein concentration and body composition due to aging significantly affect how drugs are distributed within the body. Specifically, aging is associated with a decrease in albumin levels by about 10% and an increase in α1-acid glycoprotein levels. These alterations are not...
01:27Pharmacodynamics in Geriatric Patients: Effects of Age
Age-related pharmacokinetic changes are extensively documented, but understanding age-related pharmacodynamic alterations is relatively limited. This knowledge gap can be partly attributed to the complexity of developing appropriate measures of drug responses compared to bioanalytical methods for determining drug concentrations.Most information regarding age-related differences in human pharmacodynamics originates from cross-sectional studies. However, these studies assume that observed mean...
01:28Drug Therapy
The advent of drug therapy has profoundly shaped modern mental health care, providing targeted treatments for a range of psychological disorders. Psychotherapeutic drugs, classified into antianxiety, antidepressant, and antipsychotic medications, address symptoms across anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and schizophrenia. While these medications have transformed patient outcomes, they require careful management due to their potential side effects and limitations.
Antianxiety Medications
Antianxiety Medications