Medication and Older Adults

| Total Words: 1650

You are a partner in your health care. This is a partnership between you, your doctor, and your pharmacist. You need to be assertive and knowledgeable about the medications you take.

The Food and Drug Administration is also working to make drugs safer for older adults, who consume a large share of the nation’s medications. Adults over age 65 buy 30 percent of all prescription drugs and 40 percent of all over-the-counter drugs.

“Almost every drug that comes through FDA [for approval] has been examined for effects in the elderly,” says Robert Temple, M.D., associate director for medical policy in FDA’s Office of Drug Evaluation and Research. “If the manufacturer hasn’t done a study in the elderly, we ask for it.”

More than 15 years ago, the agency established guidelines for drug manufacturers to include more elderly patients in their studies of new drugs. Upper age limits for drugs were eliminated, and even patients who had other health problems were given the green light to participate if they were able. Also, drugs known to pass primarily through the liver and kidneys must be studied in patients with malfunctions of...

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