노인에서의 신경병성 통증 약물 치료

Abstract

Recently the population of older age over 65 years is very rapidly increasing in our country. Mostly elderly people suffered from many kinds of chronic disorder including neuropathic pain and the prevalence of chronic disease in elderly population reach to 86.7%. In a populational study, average number of chronic disease in older people is close to 3.3. Considering these trends, the number of elderly patients expected to be more stiffly increasing and the population of older patients complaining of chronic painful disorder is concomitantly increased. In addition to numerical increase of population of older patients, polypharmacy is also increased for treatment of multiple disease tendencies. Based on these polypharmacotherapy, it is required to understand quite different pharmacodynamics of elderly patients such as absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of specific drugs for treating chronic disease of elderly people. The treatment of neuropathic pain of elderly population is not exceptional for this principle. So in addition to comprehensive knowledge about neuropathic pain, understanding of basic principles about pharmacodynamics is mandatory for adequate treatment of variable painful disorders of elderly people.