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Elderly people lose the ability to absorb drugs well

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
 
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03 March 2014, 16:30

Elderly people (over 60 years old) with depression medications that are often prescribed to patients starting from the age of 30 can cause significant harm to health, as stated by US specialists.

Many doctors who prescribed medication for their elderly patients from depression, did not even suspect that they were causing harm to people's health. According to the research group, the body of older people loses the ability to absorb drugs well. As experts noted, the body is not able to cope with benzodiazepines, which represent a class of psychoactive drugs, tranquilizers that have a soothing, anticonvulsant, etc. Effects. In this group, scientists have included librium, midazolam, valium, quazepam, etc. All these drugs help to get rid of the feeling of anxiety, anxiety, muscle cramps, and normalize sleep.

Specialists from the geriatric community of the United States are concerned: they believe that all these drugs have a strong effect on the elderly. Benzodiazepines have a high probability of side effects: dizziness, loss of consciousness, impaired concentration, hallucinations. All this can cause accidents or accidents.

Experts noted that the risk in this case is not only medicines, but also regular visits to elderly people by different doctors who can prescribe to their patients drugs that are not compatible with each other. As a result, the body of an elderly patient can not effectively absorb all medicines.

In the human body after 60 years, a number of physiological abnormalities are observed, which may affect the behavior of certain drugs, especially in antidepressants. Scientists have already noted earlier that with age, the body is less receptive to medication, the effectiveness of which begins to decrease gradually, and the risk of side effects, on the contrary, increases.

Specialists recommend being extremely cautious when taking midazolam, estazolam, flurazepam, temazepam, chlordiazepoxide, oxazepam, and others (benzodiazepine group). As a rule, such drugs are prescribed for muscle pains, stress, insomnia. In people older than 65 years, the body becomes more sensitive to this group of drugs, the metabolism of which decreases and the duration of action in the body increases. As a result, after taking such medications, elderly people often have cognitive disorders, a state of delusions, etc. There have been cases when elderly people, during the treatment with benzodiazepines, got into accidents, lost consciousness, etc.

Recently, scientists also found that at the age of more than 70 years, men completely change their attitude towards life. According to scientists, this is due to a decrease in mental abilities, the death of loved ones and friends. At this age, a person reacts more sharply to different situations in life, as it becomes very dependent on circumstances.

trusted-source[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8],

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