Prevalence of psychotropic drug use in nursing homes for the aged in Quebec and in the French-speaking area of Switzerland

Abstract

There was a considerable use of psychotropics in Quebec and Switzerland with, seemingly, no dramatic departure from the average practice. Our data cannot tell if there is a global overuse of psychotropics, but indicated that dosage and medication selection seem adequate. Physicians should critically reassess the necessity of prescribed medications for their patients.

Symptoms of mental health and psychotropic drug use among old people in geriatric care, changes between 1982 and 2000

“…It is also reasonable to believe that the changes, at least partly, are a consequence of the changes in the pharmacological management of psychiatric problems in old age. The reported prevalence of psychotropic drug use is in line with the results from several comparable studies (Nygaard et al, 2003;Gobert and D'hoore, 2005;Selbaek et al, in press;Zuidema et al, 2007), and the changes from 1982 to 2000 are considerable.…”

Benzodiazepine use in Belgian nursing homes: a closer look into indications and dosages

“…We confirmed the high prevalence of chronic BZD/Z use (half of the residents) in this setting, as found in numerous other studies [2,4,32]. We found that insomnia was the main indication for chronic use, and was treated at higher dosages than recommended in older adults [21,23,25,26].…”

“…In addition, in neighbouring European countries [2][3][4] similar prevalence numbers of benzodiazepine use were found.…”

“…Benzodiazepine utilisation in older adults is high, with intake rates varying from 28% to 55% in European nursing homes [1][2][3][4].…”

Pain treatment of agitation in patients with dementia: a systematic review

“…Although some recent studies suggest that psychosocial strategies may decrease agitation (Chenoweth et al, 2009), few adequately studies exist (Ballard et al, 2009b). Neuroleptics are commonly used (De Deyn et al, 1999;Gobert and D'hoore, 2005;Lovheim et al, 2006), but have shown modest or no improvement (Ballard and Howard, 2006). Neuroleptics have a poor tolerability with frequent and troublesome side-effects, increased risk for cerebrovascular incidents (Wooltorton, 2002;Wooltorton, 2004;Schneider et al, 2006a) and increased mortality (Ballard et al, 2009a).…”