by Eric Christianson | May 4, 2016 | Polypharmacy Cases And The Prescribing Cascade
It is very important to assess disease states prior to adding new medications. A 73 year old male has terribly dry skin. The dry skin is leading to some itching. His past medication history includes A-Fib, hypothyroidism, BPH, constipation and osteoarthritis. His...
by Eric Christianson | Feb 3, 2016 | Polypharmacy Cases And The Prescribing Cascade
Why are anticholinergics on the naughty list of medications in the elderly (Beer’s criteria)? Side effects. Side effects of anticholinergics can be very troubling. Here’s a list of 6 big ones to remember including an example of the prescribing cascade...
by Eric Christianson | Jan 31, 2016 | Polypharmacy Cases And The Prescribing Cascade
Constipation is often a chronic problem in the elderly and there are many diseases and obviously many medications that can cause constipation. There are ways to try to minimize pill burden in this patient population when reducing the actual number may not be...
by Eric Christianson | Jan 20, 2016 | Long Term Care Consultant Pharmacist Education and Information, Polypharmacy Cases And The Prescribing Cascade
This is often one of the most challenging questions in geriatrics: When should we discontinue statins in the elderly? I’ve been asked this question several times, and there are a lot of factors that go into my assessment as to whether a statin should be...
by Eric Christianson | Dec 27, 2015 | Educational Case Studies For Pharmacists, Polypharmacy Cases And The Prescribing Cascade, Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine Case Studies
A 77 year old male had recently been having troublesome hallucinations. He was envisioning spiders and snakes in his room that were incredibly distressing and a major cause of his severe anxiety. Other causes such as medication and medical conditions were ruled out,...
by Eric Christianson | Dec 23, 2015 | Gastrointestinal Medication and Disease State Clinical Pearls, Medication and Disease State Clinical Pearls For Pharmacists, Polypharmacy Cases And The Prescribing Cascade
I often struggle with the question, “When can we discontinue a PPI?” It is rarely a black and white issue in the (mostly) geriatric population I work with. Here’s a scenario that might make things a little more black and white. Patient 1: She is 81...
