PHARMACEUTICAL ATTENTION TO THE ELDERLY IN POLYPHARMACY

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This includes avoiding medication-related problems, such as interactions between drugs prescribed by the physician, undesirable reactions in the pharmacological treatment, and elimination of unnecessary complexity and duplication of the drug regimen. Through these activities, the professional is able to promote a drug treatment that is effective and safe for his patient. Thus, the present study aims to review how the pharmaceutical professional can contribute to the pharmaceutical care of the elderly in polypharmacy. Objective: Review over the importance of pharmaceutical care to the use of polypharmacy in people over 60 years of age. Methods: This is a study of integrative literature review and bibliographic survey, whose methodology was constituted in search of complete articles published between the years 2009 to 2021 in databases, in which 30 articles were analyzed and selected for. the elaboration of the research. The following evaluation criteria were used to collect information: pharmaceutical care, health of the elderly, drug interactions and polypharmacy. Results: Of the 30 articles, fifteen were chosen for analysis, it was noticed that the simultaneous and chronic use of medications is increasingly common in the elderly, which intensifies the likelihood of side effects of these, and can then generate a drug interaction, decreased adherence and toxicity, among others. Final Considerations: That polypharmacy has a wide variation in Brazil, being used by many elderly people. Therefore, pharmaceutical care is one of the key points for the use of polypharmacy, since it is possible to evaluate the prescriptions and medicines that are being used inappropriately by people.