Medication-Related Falls in Older People. Causative Factors and Management Strategies

Description

• Serves as a repository of knowledge and scientific evidence concerning medications and their effects on falls risk 
• Informs readers of the complexity of the issue of medication related falls in older adults 
• Providestrategiesforitsmanagement 

Comprising a single repository of knowledge and scientific evidence in the field, this book provides strategies to mitigate fall risk by providing information on the complex interactions between aging processes, co-morbid conditions and prescribed medications in older patients.

Geriatric health is becoming a more prominent issue as the population ages, and balancing the beneficial effects of medication against the potential and real side-effects in these patients involves a deliberate and thoughtful task: physiologic aging, the accumulation of co-morbidities, and the use of drugs to manage various conditions and symptoms generates a unique set of problems for each patient.

Falls are a dreaded event in older people. The event can affect a person in a physical, and psychological manner, resulting in soft tissue and bony injury, fear of falling, and depression. The identification of and reduction in fall risks in older people is a worldwide concern, and reducing the incidence of falls is a ubiquitous quality measure of health care delivery. Heterogeneity amongst older people precludes a single solution. However, physicians and others involved in the care of geriatric patients will benefit from the presented insights into how medication use can be modified to limit its impact as a contributing factor. 

Allen R. Huang is the Chief of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Physicians and the American Geriatrics Society. He also serves on the board of the Canadian Geriatrics Society. His research interest is in the field of optimal prescribing for older people. He has published 40 papersand two book chapters. He serves on the editorial boards ofDrugs and Aging and Journal of Population Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology. He is the recipient of the 2003 Qualcomm CDMA A-List award in the non-profit, impact category and the 2006 Prix J.-Armand-Bombardier award for innovation from the Association canadienne-francaise pour l’avancement des sciences.

Louise Mallet is a professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada and a clinical pharmacist on the geriatric consult team in the emergency room at McGill University Health Centre, Glen site.  Her primary research interest is inappropriate medication usage in elderly patients. She has published numerous papers, presented at conferences, and acted as co-editor of two French-language textbooks on medications in the elderly.  She is a member of the editorial review board for The Consultant Pharmacist journal and is associate editor for the French journal Pharmactuel. Dr. Mallet is a recipient of the Roger LeBlanc award, the Excellence in Geriatric Pharmacy Practice award from the American Society of Consultant pharmacists, and the prestigious award Prix Louis Hébert from the Quebec pharmaceutical Society. She has also been honoured by the Association des pharmaciens en établissements du santé du Québec for her work as a hospital pharmacist. She is a Fellow of the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy.