Drug therapy in the geriatric animal: the effect of aging on drug disposition.

It is clear from this discussion that the predictable effects of aging on the disposition and effect of therapeutic agents in veterinary medicine are in dire need of study. Theoretical concepts are important in that they may help rationalize a therapeutic regimen or help explain a drug toxicity, but they need to be explored in well-controlled studies to determine which of all the possible alterations in drug behavior are important and which are merely academic curiosities. In the meantime, the clinician is advised to treat the geriatric patient in a more cautious manner and to develop a therapeutic regimen that is based on the patient's probable alterations in physiologic function, remembering that although aging is not a disease, its effect on a drug's ability to produce both efficacy and toxicity can be just as profound.