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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Concealment of drugs in food and beverages in nursing homes
— cross sectional study | | Author(s) | Oyvind Kirkevold, Knut Engedal |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, vol 330, no 7481, 1 January 2005 |
| Pages | pp 20-22 |
| Source | http://www.bmj.com |
| Keywords | Drugs ; Nursing homes ; Dementia ; Cross sectional surveys ; Norway. |
| Annotation | The covert administration of drugs is common in Norwegian nursing homes. The authors report an interview study of professional carers of 1362 patients in 160 regular nursing home units and 564 patients in 90 special care units for dementia in all five health regions in Norway. 11% of the patients in regular nursing home units and 17% of the patients in special care units for dementia received drugs mixed in their food or beverages at least once during seven days. In 95% of cases, drugs were routinely mixed in the food or beverages. The practice was documented in patients' records in 40% (90/241) of cases. The covert administration of drugs was more often documented when the physician took the decision to hide the drugs in the patient's foodstuff (57%, 27/47). Patients who were given drugs covertly more often received amphetamines, antipsychotics, and anxiolitics compared with patients who were given their drugs openly. Routines for such practice are arbitrary, and the practice is poorly documented in the patients' records. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050203209 A |
| Classmark | LLD: LHB: EA: 3KB: 76N * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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