Abstract
The treatment of older people with mental illness invariably needs an integrated approach, with the pharmacological, social and psychological aspects working together, but this review primarily focuses on pharmacological treatments. In general, the pharmacological evidence base is much better for younger patients. In particular, many clinical trials exclude older people and this makes it difficult to extrapolate the findings to older people with mental illness. Older people may be excluded because it is harder to control for confounding variables such as concurrent diseases and the medications needed to treat them. This must always be borne in mind when interpreting data from studies involving younger people. There is a need for more research into the use of psychotropic drugs in this vulnerable group of older people.