ABSTRACT
The ageing of the population brings with it many problems. Many of these are quite apparent, but others are less obvious. Some of the latter relate to medications and their use. Several studies have shown that medication-related illness among older people is rising. For example, adverse drug reactions are implicated in 5–17% of hospital admissions and while in hospital 6–17% of older in-patients experience adverse drug reactions (Cunningham et al. 1997, Mannesse et al. 1997, Mannesse et al. 2000).
