Does admission to a hospital geriatric psychiatry programme improve benzodiazepine and other drug use?
✍ Scribed by David Williams; Edmond Chiu; Ken Harvey
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1994
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 385 KB
- Volume
- 9
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6230
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Seventy-five consecutive patients admitted to a hospital geriatric psychiatry unit had their medication reviewed on admission and at discharge. Use of benzodiazepines declined significantly from 40% to 20% of patients, but use of other therapeutic groups showed no significant change. The number of patients taking drug combinations with potentially adverse side-effects decreased significantly between admission (21) and discharge (7). The use of relatively contraindicated drugs also declined. Drug utilization review is a valuable technique for drawing attention to potential problems of prescribing for elderly people. KEY woms-Benzodiazepine, geriatric psychiatry, hospital.
Elderly people (65 years and over), who account for 11% of the Australian population, consume about 50% of all prescription drugs (Gilbert et al., 1988).
The (Australian) National Health Strategy (1992) estimated that in 1987-88 there were 30 000- 40 000 drug-related admissions to hospitals, and that adverse drug reactions would have been a major factor in 700-900 deaths of these hospital admissions.
Benzodiazepines are the most frequently dispensed drugs under the pensioner category of the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule (Gilbert et d., 1988). The National Health Survey (ABS, 1989-90) estimated that about 330000 Australians were using benzodiazepine drugs on a daily basis for 6 months or more, despite recommendations that these drugs should be prescribed for only short periods (Victorian Drug Usage Advisory Committee, 1993). Most of the users were women