Precise medical decision making in geriatric anti depressant therapy
ABSTRACT Introduction: Human aging is characterized by increasing vulnerability not only to diseases, but also to the treatments applied to that diseases. Geriatric depression is a frequent mental disorder often requiring pharmacological treatment, which commonly is added to other medications taken to treat chronic or acute co morbidities. The challenges of appropriate treatment of elderly are increasingly recognized as an urgent health problem. Areas covered: The challenges of appropriate geriatric anti depressant prescription, and the role of novel tools developed by Precision Medicine. The data were obtained searching in MEDLINE: pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacogenetics, antidepressants, drug drug interactions and elderly, in the period 1994 2016. Expert commentary: The Precision Medicine approach take advantage by novel decision supporting tools, as pharmacogenomic testing, drug drug interactions evaluation and therapeutic drug monitoring, allowing to improve informed decision making in prescription of antidepressants.