Antipsychotics For Dementia "Under-Reported"

MadInAmerica has;
Antipsychotics For Dementia "Under-Reported"

"Research from the U.K. finds that “the true scale of anti-psychotic usage in dementia may be under-estimated. Usage may be up to 46 per cent greater than official figures suggest.” The research also finds that antipsychotic prescriptions for people with dementia living in care homes were nearly 3.5 times higher than for those living at home, and that it was possible to reduce or withdraw anti-psychotics for more than 60 per cent of patients with dementia.

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Of Further Interest:Use of anti-psychotic drugs by people with dementia ‘under reported’"

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Thank You Mad In America

And here's the Abstract from the BMC Article;

Abstract

Background: Anti-psychotics, prescribed to people with dementia, are associated with approximately 1,800 excess annual deaths in the UK. A key public health objective is to limit such prescribing of anti-psychotics.

Methods: This project was conducted within primary care in Medway Primary Care Trust (PCT) in the UK. There  were 2 stages for the intervention. First, primary care information systems including the dementia register were searched by a pharmacy technician to identify people with dementia prescribed anti-psychotics. Second, a trained specialist pharmacist conducted targeted clinical medication reviews in people with dementia initiated on anti-psychotics by primary care, identified by the data search.

Results: Data were collected from 59 practices. One hundred and sixty-one (15.3%) of 1051 people on the dementia register were receiving low-dose anti-psychotics. People with dementia living in residential homes were nearly 3.5 times more likely to receive an anti-psychotic [25.5% of care home residents (118/462) vs. 7.3% of people living at home (43/589)] than people living in their own homes (p < 0.0001; Fisher’s exact test). In 26 practices there

was no-one on the dementia register receiving low-dose anti-psychotics.

Of the 161 people with dementia prescribed low-dose anti-psychotics, 91 were receiving on-going treatment from local secondary care mental health services or Learning Disability Teams. Of the remaining 70 patients the anti-psychotic was either withdrawn, or the dosage was reduced, in 43 instances (61.4%) following the pharmacy-led medication review.

Conclusions: In total 15.3% of people on the dementia register were receiving a low-dose anti-psychotic. However, such data, including the recent national audit may under-estimate the usage of anti-psychotics in people with dementia. Anti-psychotics were used more commonly within care home settings. The pharmacist-led medication review successfully limited the prescribing of anti-psychotics to people with dementia.

Keywords: Anti-psychotics, National Dementia Strategy, Medication Review,  Dementia Registers

See Also

HHS OIG: 88% Nursing Home Residents w Dementia Antipsychotics DESPITE FDA Boxed Warning