Pharmacogenomics in Clinical Practice for Older People

Older people are over-represented among individuals that experience adverse drug reactions (ADR) and adverse drug events (ADE). Furthermore, older people are over-represented among individuals that visit emergency departments and are hospitalized because of ADRs. Moreover, older people are overrepresented among those who suffer ADEs while hospitalized. Finally, older people are among those most likely to have an anaphylactic response to prescription medications. Therefore, older people are prime candidates for efforts aimed at optimizing pharmacotherapeutic outcomes. Pharmacogenomics is an approach of using genetic data to optimize pharmacotherapeutic outcomes. Over the last two decades, pharmacogenomics grew from research initiatives into the current environment of pharmacogenomics implementation. Specifically, implementing pharmacogenomics into clinical settings or within health care systems has proven beneficial in optimizing pharmacotherapeutic outcomes. Therefore, pharmacists focused on optimizing pharmacotherapeutic outcomes for older people should be aware of the approaches to and resources available for implementing pharmacogenomics. KEY WORDS: Drug labeling biomarkers, Genes, Older adults, Pharmacogenomics.