EU geriatric pharmacotherpies call for a sharper focus on overall treatment: PIF

The pharmacotherapy of the aged is challenging for the attending physicians because the individual differences among the elderly are more marked than in the rest of the adult population. This means that regulations on research into developing and using medicines for this group of people should take these factors into consideration, says the trade association Pharma Industry Finland.

However, while the PIF says it supports the development of geriatric pharmacotherapies, it does not believe that a European Union-wide research regulation is the correct and sufficiently rapid initiative to solve the problems. It is now time to pay attention to the use of medicines by the elderly and to the efficacy of their pharmacotherapies so that these people use only necessary and correctly dosed medicines, the group argues. This would also promote treatment adherence among elderly patients and cost-effectiveness of the therapies.

Good geriatric pharmacotherapy means using only necessary and efficient medicines administered at correct dosages and suitable for the aged, the PIF stresses. To promote good pharmacotherapy, better possibilities to follow the everyday use of medicines by the patients are needed. Electronic prescription and patient records help physicians and pharmacies to follow the pharmacotherapy of the elderly. Their comprehensive introduction must be accelerated, it urges.