Doctors too often prescribe too many or the wrong prescriptions to elderly people, according a report in the medical journal The Lancet.

More research is necessary to change this tendency, say the authors of one report. Many elderly are prescribed drugs that are inappropriate for them, and in many cases the drugs are overused or underused, the article said. To ensure appropriate prescribing of drugs to the elderly, care should be provided by a multidisciplinary team, said Dr. Anne Spinewine of the Universite Catholique de Louvain, in Brussels.

Older patients also are at high-risk for having drug interactions, and more research is necessary to document these interactions, experts said in a second article in The Lancet.