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©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. May 6, 2016; 7(2): 334-342
Published online May 6, 2016. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v7.i2.334
Published online May 6, 2016. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v7.i2.334
Review of efficacy and safety of laxatives use in geriatrics
Manhal Izzy, Division of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467, United States
Manhal Izzy, Anju Malieckal, Erin Little, Sury Anand, Division of Gastroenterology, the Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn, NY 11205, United States
Anju Malieckal, Division of Gastroenterology, NYU-Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY 11220, United States
Author contributions: Izzy M and Malieckal A contributed equally to this work; Izzy M and Malieckal A designed the research; Izzy M and Little E did the data collection and analyzed the data; Izzy M, Malieckal A and Little E wrote the paper; Anand S reviewed the results, revised the paper, and granted the final approval.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The above-mentioned authors of this manuscript hereby declare that they do not have any conflict-of-interest (including but not limited to commercial, personal, political, intellectual, or religious interests) related to the work submitted herein.
Data sharing statement: Non applicable for this type of studies (minireview without statistical analysis).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Manhal Izzy, MD, Division of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 111 East 210th Street, Bronx, NY 10467, United States. mizzy@montefiore.org
Telephone: +1-718-9204154 Fax: +1-917-6720198
Received: June 29, 2015
Peer-review started: July 2, 2015
First decision: September 17, 2015
Revised: November 29, 2015
Accepted: December 17, 2015
Article in press: December 18, 2015
Published online: May 6, 2016
Peer-review started: July 2, 2015
First decision: September 17, 2015
Revised: November 29, 2015
Accepted: December 17, 2015
Article in press: December 18, 2015
Published online: May 6, 2016
Core Tip
Core tip: Laxatives are among the most commonly prescribed medications for elderly patients, however, data about safety and efficacy of laxatives in this patient population are limited. We show in this paper, based on reviewing geriatric studies, that senna combinations and polyethylene glycol appear to have better outcomes in this population than other classic laxatives. We also discuss here the promising results of the new agents, lubiprostone, linaclotide, and prucalopride, which can be helpful in treating geriatric populations in the near future.