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Use of antipsychotic medications among elderly residents in long‐term institutional care: a three‐year follow‐up
Author(s) -
Alanen HannaMari,
FinneSoveri Harriet,
Noro Anja,
Lein Esa
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.1462
Subject(s) - long term care , antipsychotic , medicine , gerontology , term (time) , psychiatry , geriatrics , psychology , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , physics , quantum mechanics
Abstract Objective To analyse the use of antipsychotic medications, change over time and associated factors in a three‐year follow‐up among elderly residents in long‐term institutional care. Design Retrospective study was designed with three identical cross‐sectional samples originating from the same long‐term care facilities, and collected 1 July to 31 December in 2001, 2002 and 2003, in Finland. These were extracted from the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) database, based on Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessments. Setting Of the data providers 16 were hospital‐based institutions and 25 residential homes. Participants Each of the data sets included 3662‐3867 resident assessments. Results The prevalence use of one or more antipsychotic decreased from 42% in 2001 to 39% in 2003. The overall confounder‐adjusted decrease in antipsychotic use was not statistically significant. However, the use of antipsychotics decreased among residents who had wandering as a behavioural problem (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.63–0.99) and increased among residents with concomitant use of anxiolytic medications (OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.03–1.48). Conclusions The use of antipsychotic medications among residents in long‐term institutional care was common and the caring patterns were quite stable during the observation period. Adequate indications may not have been achieved in all cases. More attention should be paid to the appropriate use of antipsychotics in this frail population. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.