Geriatric Pharmacology: Maximizing Safety & Effectiveness – Steven Atkinson

Prevent Critical Pharmacology Errors, Avoid Malpractice Lawsuits and Start Prescribing with Confidence…

Treating your geriatric patients is challenging! Older adults can be complex, with multiple diseases and a variety of treatment options. With so many changes in medications and guidelines for prescribing, how are you supposed to keep up? Additionally, you worry about patient compliance, unique pharmacodynamics and treating one condition without the side effects causing more harm than good. Feeling overwhelmed? We have your solution!

This comprehensive program recording will give you the tools and strategies you need to prescribe with confidence. Drawing from decades of experience, Steven Atkinson will provide you with cutting-edge information regarding potential side effects, drug interactions, and proper prescribing and monitoring procedures for a variety of acute and chronic diseases.

Steven knows that you must rely on your experience, instincts and education to make decisions about what is best for your patient. That’s why he has developed numerous tips and tools that can make this challenging job easier. Don’t miss this opportunity to join him for this comprehensive program. You will leave confident in your prescribing ability and armed with the knowledge you need to immediately to improve outcomes for your geriatric patients.

1. Specify preventative techniques and individual monitoring plans to minimize adverse drug events and drug-drug interactions.
2. Apply the principles of polypharmacy to the patient with cognitive impairment.
3. Point out the effects of aging on pharmacokinetics.
4. Evaluate major causes, mechanism and early symptoms of drug-induced toxicity.
5. Assess tools used to safely taper and discontinue medications.
6. Select prescribing strategies for the geriatric patient.
7. Incorporate age-sensitive principles for medication dosing and management to clinical scenarios.

Aging and Pharmacodynamics

• Effects of Aging on Drug Therapy
• Variations in Drug Half-life and Clearance
• Drug Dosing in Chronic Kidney Disease
• Common Inappropriate & Over-prescribed Drugs
• Identifying Subtle Clues to Prevent an Adverse Drug Reaction

Drug-Drug Interactions

• The P450 System
• The Magic Drug Number in the Elderly
• The Top 10 Medications to Avoid
• The Top 10 Drug-drug Interactions
• Drugs Associated with Weight Loss

Strategies to Avoid Adverse Drug Events

• Identifying Subtle Clues to Prevent an Adverse Drug Reaction
• Individualizing a Monitoring Plan
• Mandatory Gradual Dose Reduction (GDR)
• The Garfinkel Method for Drug Discontinuation

The “BEERS Criteria”

• What are the Experts Saying?
• Follow the Criteria OR go with your Instincts?
• When Inappropriate Drugs are OK

STOPP and START

• New Recommendations
• Guidelines by Body System
• Putting it all Together – Still a Puzzle?

Controversial Vitamins & Herbal Supplements

• Is your Multivitamin killing you?
• After 19 years, the Research is in
• Advising your Patients Appropriately
• The Vitamins that Help & the Ones that Hurt

Psychopharmacology

• Selecting the Right Medication
• Challenges in LTC
• Black Box WARNINGS

Dementia, Depression & Delirium

• The 3 “Ds” in Geriatrics
• Drugs that Cause Cognitive Impairment

Prescribing Challenges & Solutions

• Cardiovascular
  • Digoxin, Amiodarone & the Risk of Orthostatsis
  • The New Anti-Hypertensive Guidelines
• Neurological
  • The Risk of “Sleepers”: Zolpidem, Eszopiclone, Zaleplon
• Endocrinology
  • “Doc I’ve got a Low ‘T'”
  • Eliminating Sliding Scales
• Gastrointestinal
  • Risks of Proton-pump-inhibitors (PPIs)
  • Best Antiemetic Choices
• Anticholinergics
  • Associated Psychosis
  • Increased Anxiety and Agitation
• Antithrombotics
  • Is Aspirin Still Recommended?
• Anti-Infectives
  • Antibiotic Stewardship
  • Drug Resistance Concerns
  • Major Contributors to Cdiff
• Pain Meds
  • Newest Guidelines for Opioid Discontinuance
  • Alternatives to Opioids