Learning Journal 21

Answer to questions from the last journal entry:
It turns out pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are not the study of drug-to-drug interactions. After additional research I found that pharmacokinetics/dynamics is the study of the biological mechanisms of drugs.

New information found:
I found a study which showed that elderly patients are less likely to take the recommended doses of medications compared to other patients. This occurs for a number of reasons, but the reasons that are of interest to me are (1)too many prescriptions prescribed (2) poor synchronization of drugs (3)complexity of the medication schedule (4)not prescribing slow release drugs to limit the number of times per-day the patient must medicate (5)not paying attention to the size of capsules for prescribed drugs or utilizing syrups when possible.

Questions about this information:
Is there a database that has information on which drug combinations have adverse affects in elderly patients?
How many of the common drugs are available in a slow release form? This seems like it would be a good way to reduce the costs of medications for the elderly and increase the likelihood of patients actually taking their medications.

A possible survey question I could add might include:
Of all the medications that you take, how many do you follow the exact dosage recommended by your physician?

Notes to Maggie:
I realize that I haven't incorporated anything from the inquiry conference into my journal entry. At this point in my project I need to focus heavily on background research for my topic so I can complete section D in my IRB proposal by Friday. I'll make some connections between my project and what I learn from the conference in the extra-credit journal entry this week.
Also, Andrew wanted me to code my journal by keywords. Since this journal is viewed via web browser, the Ctr/F function allows me to search any text on the screen for certain words. When I want to search my journal by keyword I just enter Ctr/F and type in the keyword and that highlights the word throughout my whole journal. Is this sufficient for coding the journal?

Keywords: drug combinations, slow release drugs, patient compliance