[Psychodrugs in the elderly]

Based on the following realities, general knowledge on the management of psychodrugs in the elderly population is necessary for any physician: high prescription of psychodrug in this population, up to 25% of the elderly may require this treatment at any time, and good therapeutic response. To achieve good compliance to the psychiatric treatment by the elderly patient, the pharmacokinetic characteristics and interactions in this population must be well known to avoid the appearance of significant side effects. These side effects may induce the patient to drop out of the treatment or to even have at risk side effects. A review on the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic characteristics related with psychodrugs in the elderly is done in this article. Based on this, the three large groups of anxiolytic, antidepressive and antipsychotic psychodrugs are reviewed.