Geriatric Pharmacotherapy: A Guide for the Helping Professional

Advances in understanding how aging affects medications has enabled physicians to offer advice to their older patients beyond "start low and go slow." Following a poignant poem by a nursing home resident, Dr. Olsen and colleagues who teach family medicine/pharmacology at Wright State U. School of Medicine introduce 14 chapters with information on optimizing prescription and over-the-counter (including herbal) drug use in this growing population. Contributors address, on the one hand, the costs of nonadherence to drug therapy, and on the other, the "silent epidemic" of adverse drug effects in seniors, plus medical and ethical issues relating to treating conditions common in geriatric patients. McGraw-Hill distributes American Pharmacists Association Books. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)