Matters needing attention in taking medicine for the elderly. With the aging of China's population, the proportion of the elderly in the population is gradually increasing, so the use of drugs by the elderly is very particular, otherwise it will easily cause harm. I collected and sorted out the relevant information about the precautions for the elderly to take medicine. Let's have a look.
Medication precautions for the elderly 1 1. Use heat-clearing and antidote with caution.
Drugs for clearing away heat and toxic materials are cold, and the elderly with poor spleen and stomach function and weak constitution may cause stomach pain, vomiting or diarrhea if they are taken at will. In recent years, there have been many reports of adverse reactions such as gastrointestinal mucosal bleeding, mild disorder of hematopoietic system and even allergic death caused by taking antipyretic drugs such as Radix Isatidis, which need to be paid attention to.
2. Use aphrodisiac with caution
Sexual dysfunction in the elderly is a normal phenomenon. If the aphrodisiac is abused, you can only drink poison to quench your thirst, which is very harmful to your health. If you want to delay the decline of sexual function, you can start with adjusting diet and proper exercise.
3. Use cold medicine with caution.
Cold medicine does great harm to healthy qi. Old people with deficiency-cold constitution often have the characteristics of cold limbs, long urine and pale face. Once they feel unwell because of taking cold Chinese medicine, it will aggravate the imbalance between yin and yang, which is extremely unfavorable to health.
Step 4 use laxatives with caution
Constipation in the elderly is mostly functional constipation caused by overweight, weakness of abdominal muscles and weakening of intestinal peristalsis. If diarrhea is induced by laxatives, colon spasm is easy to occur and defecation is more difficult. There are also solutions such as magnesium sulfate and phenolphthalein, which may absorb a lot of water in tissues, leading to dehydration, and the elderly are particularly sensitive to water metabolism.
Precautions for taking medicine for the elderly 2 Principles and precautions for taking medicine for the elderly
1, try to reduce therapeutic drugs. For a disease, when one drug is effective, it is not necessary to use two drugs, and the variety of drugs should be reduced as much as possible to reduce drug interaction.
2. According to the most suitable time, such as iron absorption time is 19:00, it is more reasonable to use drugs after lunch and dinner. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should be used after meals to reduce the damage of gastrointestinal mucosa, and cholesterol synthesis is fast and gastric acid secretion is high at night. Taking statins or H2 blockers before going to bed can play the biggest role of drugs.
3. Drugs that are toxic to liver and kidney should be avoided as much as possible, such as aminoglycoside antibiotics, sulfonamides, vancomycin, first-generation cephalosporins, etc.
4. Pay attention to the dosage. In principle, the dosage of the elderly should be lower than that of adults, and the dosage and interval should be considered comprehensively according to the patient's weight, liver and kidney function, so as to achieve individualized medication. The dose for the general elderly should be 1/2-3/4 for adults.
5, avoid abuse of tonic, many elderly people like to take health care products, targeted moderate tonic has a certain health care effect on the body, but it should be just right and avoid excessive. Special reminder, the elderly must inform the doctor of the health care products currently used when seeking medical treatment.
6. For some drugs with high toxicity and narrow therapeutic window, blood drug concentration should be monitored, such as digoxin in cardiovascular drugs; Vancomycin and gentamicin in antibacterial drugs; Phenytoin sodium in antiepileptic drugs and aminophylline in antiasthmatic drugs; According to the monitoring results of blood drug concentration, timely adjust the dose according to the doctor's advice to prevent and reduce the occurrence of adverse drug reactions or adverse events.
7, pay attention to record the patient medication and follow-up on time. Old people have poor memory. In order to avoid repeated use of drugs or omission of drugs, they should keep records in time after taking drugs and go to the hospital regularly according to the date stipulated by the doctor.
With the acceleration of population aging in China, drug abuse among the elderly has become a widespread concern and increasing attention in society. Medical institutions at all levels should take a more cautious attitude towards drug use for the elderly, so as to make drug use for the elderly safe, reasonable and effective and avoid serious adverse drug events.
Pharmacokinetic characteristics of elderly people taking drugs
1, absorption
The digestive tract mucosa of the elderly is atrophied, gastric acid secretion is reduced, digestive enzyme secretion is reduced, and the absorption function of oral drugs is weakened.
Step 2 distribute
The plasma protein of the elderly decreases with age. Some drugs with high plasma protein rate, such as warfarin, diazepam, digoxin, indomethacin, etc., reduce the amount of protein binding and increase the concentration of free drugs in blood. Because only free drugs have pharmacological activity, the efficacy is enhanced, and it is easy to cause adverse reactions.
3. Metabolism
The liver is the main metabolic organ of drugs. The old people's liver quality decreases, the blood flow of liver decreases, the synthesis of liver metabolic enzymes decreases, the activity of enzymes decreases, and the metabolic ability of drugs decreases.
Step 4 excrete
The kidney is an important excretory organ. In the elderly, the renal plasma flow decreases, the renal function decreases, and the renal excretion function decreases, which is easy to produce drug accumulation and cause adverse drug reactions.