Open AccessPolypharmacy, Adverse Drug Reactions and Drug-Drug Interactions in COVID-19-Aging Patients: Considerations on the Clinical Picture
Author(s) -
Mariléia Cháves Andrade,
José Henrique Pereira Pinto
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
unimontes científica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2236-5257
pISSN - 1519-2571
DOI - 10.46551/ruc.v22n2a02
Subject(s) - polypharmacy , medicine , drug , covid-19 , intensive care medicine , drug reaction , disease , adverse effect , pandemic , pharmacotherapy , pharmacology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Since the beginning of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the most severe symptoms have occurred in elderly patients with comorbidities, with a higher risk of complications. Prescribed drugs, which are already part of geriatric care, associated with the experimental therapeutic drugs of COVID-19, may increase the risk of undesirable occurrences, due to the practice of polypharmacy, with the possibility of emergence of inappropriate adverse events and drug interactions. This can increase the risk of worsening the clinical picture, impairment of the general condition, intensification of inflammation and associated unfavorable conditions, incurring the highest probability of mortality.