When symptoms of polypharmacy are consistent with those of difficult-to-diagnose disorders, reliable determinations about which drugs are necessary is critical.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(12):E1133-1138. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.1133.
Dr Jo Ellen Wilson joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Drs Jennifer M. Connell and Maria C. Duggan: “Why We Must Prevent and Appropriately Manage Delirium.”
This process of developing EBM-based guidelines and applying them to clinical care highlights the tension between generating unbiased knowledge based on statistical aggregation and the application of this information to individual patients.
Elderly persons should not be excluded from participation in clinical trials for cardiovascular drugs since that population comprises the largest number of patients with cardiovascular disease.