Individualized assessment of the older patient.

The increase in the elderly population has influenced health care policy and economics to the point where even drug therapy for this group must be re-examined. Important drug use issues in the elderly include inadequately defined goals, multiple illnesses/multiple drugs, adverse reactions, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, compliance, and self-care. Specific strategies for dealing with each of these issues are acceptability/suitability of specific drugs, formalized compliance analysis, cooperative monitoring and profiling, effective patient communication, and patient education.