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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Attitudes of old age psychiatrists in England and Wales to the use of mood stabilizer drugs | | Author(s) | E Ephraim, R Prettyman |
| Journal title | International Psychogeriatrics, vol 21, no 3, June 2009 |
| Pages | pp 576-580 |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Behaviour disorders ; Psychoses ; Drugs ; Attitude ; Psychiatrists ; Social surveys. |
| Annotation | This study investigates attitudes to the prescription of mood stabilizer drugs for older patients by old age psychiatrists. From a sample of 508 members of the Old Age Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists practising in England and Wales, 188 (37%) took part in a postal questionnaire survey. A proforma questionnaire investigating opinions about potential indications for, and current concerns about, mood stabilizer drugs was sent to all participants. Nearly all respondents initiated prescriptions for mood stabilizer drugs and a large majority agreed that they are therapeutically appropriate for prophylaxis of affective disorder (95%), treatment resistant depression (95%), acute mania (91%) and for behavioural symptoms in dementia (75%). Concerns about safety (77%), drug interactions (68%) and lack of scientific evidence (53%) were common. In conclusion, old age psychiatrists are frequent prescribers of mood stabilizer drugs for a variety of indications, but have understandable concerns arising from a relative lack of scientific evidence of efficacy and effectiveness in older patients. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-090616224 A |
| Classmark | EA: EP: EL: LLD: DP: QT9: 3F |
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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