SUFU 2008 Winter Meeting - Geriatric State-of-the-Art Lecture: Drug Treatment Choice In Older Adults With Incontinence

Main Category: Urology / Nephrology
Article Date: 08 Mar 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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UroToday.com - As the age of a patient increases, so does the probability that one will be on medications. Problematic issues of drug-drug interactions, drug-disease interactions, and common, and therefore cumulative adverse effects or various agents are exaggerated in the elderly patient population 65 years of age, in which the average person is on 5 medications.

Dr. DuBeau delivered an enlightening account of the status of pharmacotherapy in the geriatric population, in whom the blood brain barrier is more permeable to medications and drug clearance is generally decreased. She described an interesting, albeit somewhat unsurprising phenomenon termed the "cascade," in which side effects of one agent administered for a given medical issue are subsequently treated with other medications, thereby perpetuating the problem of polypharmacy.

In the current milieu in which medications are available for a variety of medical conditions, prescribing clinicians should be cognizant of the complexity of pharmacotherapy in the geriatric patient.

Presented by: Catherine DuBeau, MD at the Society for Urodynamics and Female Urology (SUFU) 2008 Winter Meeting - February 28 - March 2, 2008 Miami, Florida, USA

Reported for UroToday.com by Kathleen C. Kobashi, MD, Head, Section of Urology and Renal Transplantation, Virginia Mason Medical Center

Co-Director Continence Center, Virginia Mason Medical Center Clinical Associate Professor of Urology, University of Washington

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