[The correlations between aging and drug effects (author's transl)].

Four examples (Methamphetamine, Testosterone, Caffeine, Cysteamine) have demonstrated that the response of the organism to a drug is primarily dependent upon the functional status of the organ concerned. If this functional status changes with age, then accordingly the reaction to the drug also changes. If, however, one alters the functional status of an organ in the elderly organism, e.g. inducing increased production of DNA in the liver by partial hepatectomy, the reaction of the organ now follows a pattern comparable to the juvenile organism, rather than being dependent on chronological age.