Medication used by elderly people at home: Changes over 10 years

✍ Scribed by M. T. Malcolm

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 298 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.930070209

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The medication actually taken by 223 elderly people referred for a psychiatric opinion and seen in their own residence was compared with that reported in a very similar study made 10 years earlier. Though the average age had increased by two and a half years and there had been a great increase in those living in care homes (where more medication was used), the average consumption of medications fell. Numbers of patients on no medication doubled. Drugs used for physical illnesses and depression were unchanged. There was a marked fall in use of benzodiazepines, especially by day, and chlormethiazole. A move to shorter acting benzodiazepines was recorded. Suggested reasons for this change include: availability of alternative management techniques and therapies, education of prescribers, threats of litigation and a change in attitude of patients, relatives and staff.