Oral dosage forms, for elderly

Hanawa T, Watanabe A, Tsuchiya T, et al. New oral dosage form for elderly patients preparation and characterization of silk fibroin gel. Chem Fharm Bull (Tokyo) 1995 43 284—288. 

Hanawa, T. Watanabe, A. Tsuchiya, T, Ikowa, R. Hidaka, M. Sugihara, M. New Oral Dosage Form for Elderly Patients Preparation and Characterization of Silk Fibroin Gel. Chemical Pharm. Bulletin, 43(2) 284-288, 1995. 

Watanabe A, Hanawa T, Sugihara M, et al. Release profiles of phenytoin from new oral dosage form for the elderly. Chem Pharm Bull (Tokyo) 1994 42 1642-1645. 

Parenteral Use lower doses (2 to 5 mg) and slow dosage increases for elderly or debilitated patients and when other sedatives are given. When acute symptoms are controlled with the injectable form, administer oral therapy if further treatment is required. 

Oral liquid medicines may be a good choice of dosage form for patients who have problems with swallowing tablets and capsules, or if they have an enteral feeding tube, or for whom the required dose does not fit with the available tablet(s) or capsule(s) such as is often the case with children and elderly people. A liquid dosage form is easy to measure and administer. 

Chewable Tablets. It has already been noted that most elderly patients experience a decrease in their ability to chew efficiently [125,137,138,143]. Therefore, by virtue of their design, chewable tablets are not often recommended for use by elderly patients (particularly those who are edentulous) 155-163,164], Most chewable formulations also rely on an adequate amount of chewing action to obtain full release of their ingredients (e.g., chewing promotes the foaming action provided by some chewable antacid products). So, aside from being difficult form the elderly patient to use, full benefit of a chewable dosage form may not be achieved by these patients. Additionally, the use of chewable tablets by denture wearers may cause local irritation in the oral cavity [155]. 

Peramivir (14) is a neuraminidase inhibitor that is reported to have both an excellent safety profile and effective against influenza A and B. It is orally active, given in a once-a-day dosage, and can be made into a liquid form, allowing for use by the elderly and young children. 

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