Older persons have altered responses to drugs because of physiologic and anatomic changes which influence drug absorption, tissue localization, metabolism, receptor sites, homeostatic adjustments, and excretion. Deteriorating mental and physical faculties produce other untoward, bizarre, or exaggerated effect. This paper reviews problems in the use of endocrines, antihypertensives, cardiac glycosides, analgesics, psychoactive drugs, antibiotics, antiparkinsonians, iron, anticoagulants, gastrointestinal agents, and ophthalmics and some factors involved in allergenics and drug-induced jaundice. The elderly also often have problems involving the proper use of drugs, obtaining drugs, or in the improper use of non-prescription drugs. Suggestions are made for the physician and pharmacist to keep these problems to a minimum.

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This volume consists of the documentation of the presentations by scientists from 14 countries at a satellite symposium of the Seventh International Congress of Pharmacology, Paris, 1978. The objectives of the symposium were to discuss new findings of drug effects upon biological rhythm characteristics, and to serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas among the scientists of various disciplines interested in chronobiology.Chronobiology aims to quantify and investigate the mechanisms of biologic time structure, including rhythmic manifestations of life. The spectrum of rhythms with different frequencies ranges from subcellular structures, cells, tissues, organs, organisms, and individuals to populations and ecosystems. It appears that bioperiodic phenomena are of genetic origin. However, period, amplitude, and acrophase may -within limits -be influenced by external or environmental factors, called Zeitgeber, or synchronizers. The most prominent Zeitgeber is the light-dark cycle; others are sound, odor, and heat.The papers presented are separated into five sections: (1) chronocorticotherapy and hormone-related chronopharmacology; (2) chronopharmacological results pertinent to neurology and cardiology; (3) chronopharmacology: methodology and miscellaneous findings; (4) chronobiological aspects of nutrition; and (5) chronobiological approaches to cancer therapy.Altogether, 55 papers are presented in the five sections. Though some of the papers could have been placed in more than one section, the criterion for including each in a specific section was that chronopharmacology logically progresses to chronotherapy.The book is a fascinating treasure for all those interested in physiology, pharmacology, toxicology, and therapeutics. From reading this book, one will realize that the traditional practice of administering drugs at routine times, such as three times daily, is unjustified and not in accord with scientific findings. It becomes evident that in many cases drug administration should be programmed as a function of time.This text will not only be of value to scientists in the above-mentioned disciplines, but should be consulted by all researchers engaged in animal and human studies, and by clinicians and pharmacokineticists. Last, but not least, all those engaged in drug research, particularly in Phase-I and Phase-II studies of new drugs, should consult this book before developing their experimental designs.

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