Older Adults With Dementia at Risk From Taking Multiple Psychotropics, Study Suggests

Despite the known dangers of older adults ’ being prescribed multiple medications for dementia, including death, nearly 14% of older adults with dementia in the United States were prescribed three or more psychotropic and/or opioid medications for more than 30 consecutive days in 2018, according to astudy published today inJAMA.“Although memory impairment is the cardinal feature of dementia, behavioral and psychological symptoms (for example, apathy, delusions, agitation) are common during all stages of illness and cause significant caregiver distress,” wrote Donovan T. Maust, M.D., M.S., of the University of Michigan and colleagues. “Despite limited high-quality evidence of efficacy for pharmacological treatment, clinicians regularly prescribe psychotropic medications to community-dwelling persons with dementia in rates that far exceed use in the general older adult population.”Maust and colleagues analyzed data on Medicare beneficiaries with dementia who had Part D prescription drug coverage on January 1, 2018. (Those living in long-stay nursing homes were excluded from the analysis.) The study cohort was followed up until the death, loss of Medicare fee-for-service coverage, enrollment in Medicare Advantage, loss of Part D coverage, or December 31, 2018.The authors analyzed the prescription fills by those in the study cohort that took place between October 1, 2017, and December 31, 2018 (the observation year plus the three preceding months). The authors defined t...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: antidepressants antipsychotics dementia JAMA Medicare opioids polypharmacy Z-drugs Source Type: research