Drug use in the elderly: issues of noncompliance.

In the elderly, a rational therapeutic intervention with drugs and drug regimens is often necessary, from the point of both therapeutics and economics. The elderly patient often presents with multiple pathology that must be managed with multiple drugs, which necessitates an approach geared to more than the simple medical needs of the patient. What is needed is a careful titration of the patient's medical needs with the patient's ability to adhere to and to tolerate the effects of the proposed therapeutic regimen, coupled with his demographic and lifestyle factors.