Geriatric Pharmacy: Safe Medication Use for Older Adults
When it comes to geriatric pharmacy, the specialized branch of pharmacy focused on medication safety and effectiveness in older adults. Also known as aging pharmacotherapy, it’s not just about giving pills—it’s about making sure those pills don’t hurt more than they help. People over 65 often take five or more medications at once. That’s called polypharmacy, the use of multiple medications, often leading to dangerous interactions or side effects in older patients. It’s common, but it’s not harmless. Every extra pill adds risk: dizziness, confusion, falls, kidney stress, or even hospital visits. And many of these drugs aren’t even necessary.
That’s where deprescribing, the planned process of reducing or stopping medications that are no longer needed or are doing more harm than good. comes in. It’s not about cutting pills randomly. It’s about reviewing each one: Is this still helping? Is there a safer alternative? Are we treating a symptom that’s already gone? Tools like the Beers Criteria, a widely used list of potentially inappropriate medications for older adults, updated regularly by experts. help pharmacists and doctors spot red flags—like anticholinergics that blur vision and memory, or sedatives that make falls likely. A pharmacist-led review can cut adverse drug events by nearly half, according to real-world studies in clinics and nursing homes.
Geriatric pharmacy isn’t just about what’s in the bottle. It’s about how the pill gets taken. Does the patient understand why they’re taking it? Can they open the bottle? Are they using a pill organizer safely? Are they taking a blood pressure pill at night when it causes dizziness in the morning? These small details make big differences. And when you combine that with awareness of how aging changes drug metabolism—slower kidneys, less body water, weaker liver function—you start to see why one-size-fits-all dosing fails older adults.
You’ll find real examples below: how a simple switch from brand to generic can backfire due to the nocebo effect, how melatonin stacks dangerously with sedatives, why anticholinergics quietly harm memory, and how medication reviews using STOPP/START tools actually save lives. This isn’t theory. These are the exact issues pharmacists face every day in clinics, hospitals, and homes. What you’ll read here isn’t just about drugs—it’s about keeping older adults safe, independent, and feeling like themselves.
