An 89-year-old female has a history of hypertension, atrial fibrillation, stroke, GERD, osteoporosis, and osteoarthritis. Her current medication list includes the following: Amlodipine (podcast) 5 mg daily Rivaroxaban (podcast) 20 mg daily Clonidine (podcast) 0.2 mg...
I have had plenty of opportunities in my career to review medications with patients and offer solutions to help reduce their pill burden. Keeping track of taking all these medications can be a full-time job for some of our patients. It is critical that we try to...
One of the most common medication review requests I get from clinical staff in long term care and assisted living facilities is identifying medications that may be contributing to falls. Identifying low blood pressure as a potential contributing factor is usually...
Failure to thrive in the elderly is a common syndrome I have encountered in my work as a clinical pharmacist working with geriatric patients. The National Institute of Aging describes failure to thrive (FTT) as a “syndrome of weight loss, decreased appetite and...
Gabapentin is a frequently used medication for neuropathy, RLS, and various other pain syndromes. In this article, I discuss my top 5 reasons to avoid gabapentin use and pick an alternative. Sedation While the sedative nature of gabapentin can be beneficial when...
