Learning objectives and clinical implications
- Understand the principles of rational prescribing in older adults with multiple comorbidities, including individualized risk–benefit assessment.
- Recognize age-related pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes that influence drug selection, dosing, and adverse effects in the elderly.
- Identify the risks and consequences of polypharmacy, including drug–drug interactions, medication nonadherence, falls, cognitive impairment, and hospitalization.
- Develop skills in deprescribing unnecessary or potentially harmful medications while maintaining therapeutic efficacy and patient safety.
- Formulate patient-centered treatment plans that account for frailty, functional status, life expectancy, quality of life, and patient preferences.
- Strengthen interdisciplinary and communication skills required for medication review, counseling, and coordination of care among elderly patients with complex illnesses.
- Appreciate the clinical and public health implications of appropriate prescribing in the elderly, including reduction in adverse drug events, healthcare costs, morbidity, and mortality.