Drug therapy in the elderly

Abstract

The human life span has not significantly changed since ancient Roman times: the maximum age reached then is not very different from that reached now. The main difference, however, is that in ancient Rome only a few people reached old age, whereas now many more people reach that age. The principal achievement of Western medicine and civilisation has been to considerably increase life-expectancy: whereas the average life-expectancy of a newborn in ancient Rome was only 23 years, it has now increased to about 70 years in the western hemisphere. This is mainly the result of controlling acute infections and improving sanitary conditions. Pneumonia, tuberculosis and many other diseases considered to be fatal a few decades ago, can now in most cases be successfully treated. As more and more of the acute diseases become amenable to therapy, fewer people die of these conditions and reach old age, thus giving a chance to the various degenerative processes to develop and manifest themselves. As a result, most elderly people have a number of pathologies and the functions of many of their organs may be less efficient than in the younger population.