Metabolism and pharmacokinetics in children and the elderly

Abstract

In drug development, clinical trials are commonly carried out in either healthy volunteers or carefully selected patients. However, it has been recognised for a long time that both extremes of age, children and elderly, display a number of important metabolic and pharmacokinetic differences as compared with adults. This also has important consequences as to the toxic reactions and risk assessment of chemicals. What is known, what is not known and what should we do to improve the situation?

Keywords::

• age
• children
• development
• drug metabolism
• elderly
• pharmacokinetics