The Chief Adverse Effects of Medications

A significant number of requests for on-call geriatric psychiatric consultation will pertain to management of side effects of psychotropic and systemic medications. Many factors converge to make this area an important one, including ubiquitous polypharmacy in older patients, their vulnerability to medication-associated syndromes, and the need to account for drug metabolic changes in older patients leading to more cautious and conservative prescribing practices. The authors review these and other topics pertinent to avoiding and managing significant medication side effects when managing medications in an on-call paradigm.