Link to this article on ACP Internist website.
Alternative strategies are increasingly recommended when managing conditions like insomnia and anxiety in elderly patients.
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“Patients will call in very distressed, very anxious, overwhelmed, requesting medications to help them feel better,” said Lauren Gerlach, DO, MSc, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “During COVID, when it was very difficult for people to come in for routine office visits, there can be a tendency to want to do something to help the patient immediately, and so sometimes these prescriptions are started.”
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Clinicians' perspectives have gradually changed. “There has been a growing recognition over the past several years regarding the danger of using this class of medications with older adults in particular,” said Dr. Gerlach. Those age-specific risks include falls (potentially resulting in fractures), confusion, and overdoses, she noted.
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Clinicians' perspectives have gradually changed. “There has been a growing recognition over the past several years regarding the danger of using this class of medications with older adults in particular,” said Dr. Gerlach. Those age-specific risks include falls (potentially resulting in fractures), confusion, and overdoses, she noted.
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