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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| An observational study of psychotropic drug use and initiation in older patients resident in their own home or in care | | Author(s) | Colin McCowan, Parker Magin, Stella Anne Clark, Bruce Guthrie |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 42, no 1, January 2013 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, January 2013 |
| Pages | pp 51-56 |
| Source | http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/ http://www.bgs.org.uk/ |
| Keywords | Psychiatric treatment ; Drugs ; Living in the community ; Residents [care homes] ; Care homes ; Observation. |
| Annotation | The study aimed to compare the prescription of psychotropic medications for patients living in care homes with that for patients living at home. The setting was a retrospective population database study in the Tayside region of Scotland. Study participants were 70,297 patients aged 65-99 who were followed until their deaths or the end of the study. Prescriptions for a 12-week period were examined and psychotropic drug use compared by their place of residence _ i.e. living in care versus at home. Comparisons of prescriptions pre- and post-admission were performed for people admitted to a care home from January 2005 to December 2006. Study results showed that people living in care received 9.80 more prescribed items from 1.63 more British National Formulary (BNF) categories than people living at home over a 12-week period. They were more likely to receive any psychotropic medication (42 versus 16%, odds ratio (OR) 3.09, 95% CI: 2.79_3.41). Over 70% of 1,715 people admitted to care homes during the study who received psychotropic medication commenced the medication prior to admission. Patients who started anti-psychotics in the 30 days prior to admission were less likely to have stopped them (OR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.30-0.94). The authors conclude that prolonged prescription of psychotropic medications is commonplace in care home residents. Almost half of the people prescribed antipsychotic drugs received them for a minimum of six months. Systematic medication reviews must be established in all care homes to promote safe and effective prescription to this at-risk population. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-130104205 A |
| Classmark | LP: LLD: K4: KX: KW: 4AA |
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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