Journal of Pharmacovigilance

An Overview on Drug Therapy and their Side Effects

Sumeet Gupta^* Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, GD Goenka University, Haryana, India
^*Correspondence: Sumeet Gupta, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, GD Goenka University, Haryana, India, Email:

Received: 08-Nov-2022, Manuscript No. JP-22-19285; Editor assigned: 11-Nov-2022, Pre QC No. JP-22-19285; Reviewed: 25-Nov-2022, QC No. JP-22-19285; Revised: 02-Dec-2022, Manuscript No. JP-22-19285; Published: 09-Dec-2022, DOI: 10.35248/2329-6887.22.10.401

Description

Prescription drug use increases significantly with age. According to survey data from 2010-2011, nearly 90% of older adults take at least one prescription drug regularly, nearly 80% take at least two prescription drugs regularly, and 36% take at least I take 5 prescription medications regularly. Including over-the-counter products and dietary supplements greatly increases this prevalence. Drug use is highest among frail elderly, hospitalized patients, and nursing home residents.

Providing safe, effective drug therapy for older adults is challenging for many reasons:

• They use more medications than any other age group, increasing the risk of side effects and drug interactions and making treatment adherence more difficult.

• They are more likely to have a chronic medical condition that can be exacerbated by drugs or that can affect their response to drugs.

• Their physiological reserves are generally depleted and can be further depleted by acute and chronic illness.

• Aging can alter pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of drugs.

• They may be less able to obtain or afford drugs.

There are 2 main approaches to optimizing drug therapy in older adults:

• Using appropriate drugs as indicated and to maximize costeffectiveness.

• Preventing side effects by taking medicines correctly, stopping unnecessary medicines, and avoiding drug interactions.

Due to the high risk of side effects, overprescribing (polypharmacy) has emerged as a major problem in the elderly. However, under prescribing appropriate and therapeutically useful drugs must also be avoided. The drugs prescribed in this type of treatment come in many forms, such as taken by mouth as tablets or liquids, or injected into tissues or muscles. Medications play an important role in the management of psychiatric disorders, but are often combined with talk therapy for more effective results.

Treatment of diseases such as cancer, HIV infection, and diabetes may require administration of multiple drugs with different active ingredients. This is called combination therapy. A common problem encountered during drug therapy is that patients may develop tolerance to the drugs they take, resulting in higher doses required for the drug to be effective.

Psychotropic drugs used in drug therapy are believed to act on neurotransmitters in the brain. Computers are complex machines, but the human brain is far more complex. Because it controls the entire body, a slight imbalance in one area of the brain can cause symptoms in the brain and other parts of the body, is like trying to rearrange a spider web. When they are pulled together, all the connected strands move and move together. Scientists align one brain chemical in one direction and shift the other three. The web of chemical impulses that make up the body are intertwined and attached to each other.

All drugs have side effects. When we read the back of any overthe- counter medicine box or bottle, we will always see a list of warnings about drug interactions, allergies, and side effects. Until now, it has been impossible for scientists to develop a perfect drug with no side effects. It gets even harder when dealing with master computer brain chemistry.

Side effects of drug therapy can be psychological or physical symptoms. Some of the most common side effects with medications of all kinds are digestive problems, tremors, dry mouth, weight changes, headaches, or dizziness. All of these effects depend on dosage, age, body weight and other factors, as well as the severity and duration of symptoms. A medication related problem can be defined as an event or situation related to a medication treatment that interferes with the optimal delivery of medical care.