Addition to prescription drugs among elderly - Annotated Bibliography Example

Annotated Bibliography: Addition to Prescription Drugs Among the Elderly The issue I have chosen is the issue of adding drugs to prescription drugs among the elderly. Nowadays, because of the prevalence of herbal drugs and other supplements, the elderly are experiencing different negative effects of drug-drug interactions. Some elderly are also suffering from multiple drug misuse or abuse. It is important to understand the presence of these drug-drug interactions and how they can be avoided or controlled from the government and healthcare perspective.

Administration on Aging. (2012). Older Americans behavioral health issue brief 5: Prescription medication misuse and abuse among older adults. Administration on Aging. Retrieved from http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/AoA_Programs/HPW/Behavioral/docs2/Issue%20Brief%205%20Prescription%20Med%20Misuse%20Abuse.pdf The Administration on Aging (AOA) (2012) described the problem of prescription medication misuse and abuse among older adults, which is already a public health problem. Misuse and abuse of prescription drugs refer to non-medical use of prescription drugs.

The brief argued that the elderly is prone to misuse and abuse of drugs that can have negative interaction effects. If some of the elderly are already abusing and misusing prescription drugs, the risks of abusing other drugs may be present and result to greater health problems.Costello, R.B., Leser, M., & Coates, P.M. (2009). Dietary supplements: Current knowledge and future frontiers. In C.W. Bales, & Ritchie C.S. (Eds.), Handbook of clinical nutrition and aging (2nd ed.) (pp.553-634). New York: Humana Press.

Costello, Leser, and Coates (2009) noted that, though some kinds of herbal medicine have been found to be effective, its lack of regulation makes it hard to study how it works and what its toxicity levels are. They asserted that very few of current herbal medicines are tested for efficacy and toxicity levels. They explained that interaction risks between herbal supplements and prescription drugs of the elderly are high because the elderly tend to take in more medicine than younger adults. These researchers also talked about the dietary needs of the elderly that must be balanced with prescription drug effects.Djuv, A., Nilsen, O.G., & Steinsbekk, A. (2013). The co-use of conventional drugs and herbs among patients in Norwegian general practice: A cross-sectional study.

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 13, 295. Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/13/295 Djuv, Nilsen, and Steinsbekk (2013) conducted a cross-sectional study to understand the co-use of existing drugs and herbs among Norwegian patients, including the elderly. Findings showed that around 44% used herbal medicine, specifically bilberry, green tea, garlic, aloe vera, and Echinacea, which are co-used with other prescription drugs. Researchers also learned that the elderly do not report their varied use of herbal medicine in connection with their prescription drugs, which is problematic because they are more susceptible to interactions because of changed pharmacokinetics and lower health in general.

Johnell, K., & Klarin, I. (2007). The relationship between number of drugs and potential drug-drug interactions in the elderly. Drug Safety, 30(10), 912-918. Retrieved from Academic Search Premiere. Johnell and Klarin (2007) studied the connection between drug quantity used and potential drug-drug interactions (DDIs) for the Swedish elderly. Findings showed that there were potentially relevant DDIs among the elderly, though the risks decreased as the ages of the participants increased, and that women seemed to have lower DDIs than men.

The study showed the elderly has high prevalence for DDIs that can have health repercussions leading to sicknesses and hospitalizations because they tend to be vulnerable and already have existing illnesses.Loya, A.M., González-Stuart, A., & Rivera, J.O. (2009). Prevalence of polypharmacy, polyherbacy, nutritional supplement use and potential product interactions among older adults living on the United States-Mexico Border: A descriptive, questionnaire-based study. Drugs & Aging, 26(5), 423-436.

Retrieved from Academic Search Premiere. Loya, González-Stuart, and Rivera (2009) studied the prevalence of multiple drug use (including herbal medicine and supplements) among the elderly in the U.S.-Mexico border through a survey. They learned that those who were in the border had higher multiple drug use than those in Mexico and no difference in multiple drug use patterns among men and women. Researchers also observed that those in the border were at risk of at least one drug-drug interaction, with potential interactions among prescription drugs, nutritional supplement, and herbal drugs.