Careful Prescription of Medications for Geriatric Patients

By: Lee Ann Brady, DMD 
This topic originally appeared on PankeyGram.Org. Dr. Brady granted permission for igniteDDS to share with our readers.

Geriatric patients are more prone to systemic diseases and usually are on medications that can interfere with oral diagnosis and treatment outcomes or have potential side effects.

Screen Medications of Geriatric Patients

It’s better to play it safe first by screening for medications that can increase patients’ risk, assess their condition, and educate them on prevention strategies that could include switching to another safer option or stopping the intake for a specific time until the treatment is completed. 

I encourage you when you take care of older patients, to look up their medications, even for something as simple as antibiotics or pain medication. 

Helpful Resource when Prescribing Medications to Geriatric Patients

A helpful resource I use when I am writing prescriptions and managing existing pharmaceuticals that my older patients are taking is the Beers Criteria published by the American Geriatric Society (AGS).

The AGS Beers Criteria® lists the Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIMs) that are typically best avoided by older adults in most circumstances or under specific diseases or conditions.  

The AGS Beers Criteria divided the Potentially Inappropriate Medications into five categories:

1. Medications considered potentially inappropriate 
2. Medications potentially inappropriate in patients with certain diseases or syndromes
3. Medications to be used with caution
4. Potentially inappropriate drug-drug interactions
5. Medications whose dosage should be adjusted based on renal function

Some listed PIMs should not be written for people over age 65, some are okay with caution, or in moderation. There is a long list of medications people can take until they are ages 65 to 70 without a problem. After that age, there are side effects. 

Some of the medications cause adverse reactions on their own or in interaction with other medications. Some of these PIMs are common over-the-counter antihistamines. 

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