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Psychotropic Drug Prescriptions for Elderly Patients in a General Hospital
Author(s) -
Salzman Carl,
Kolk Bessel Van Der
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1980.tb00118.x
Subject(s) - medicine , medical prescription , drug , tricyclic , psychotropic agent , nausea , psychoactive drug , psychotropic drug , benzodiazepine , sedation , anesthesia , psychiatry , pharmacology , receptor
A survey was made of drug prescriptions written for all medical/surgical patients in a general hospital on a single weekday in 1978. Of these 348 patients, 195 were over the age of 60. In this elderly group, 62 (32 percent) were receiving psychoactive drugs. Flurazepam was the drug most commonly prescribed (in 63 percent of the patients). Diazepam was the most frequently prescribed nonhypnotic psychoactive drug (in 29 percent). Neuroleptic drugs and phenothiazine anti‐emetics (in 52 percent) were not prescribed for psychosis but for augmenting analgesia and sedation and for reducing nausea. The average daily doses were about 20 percent of those used to treat psychotic young adults. All antidepressants (in 9.7 percent) had been prescribed before admission. No monoamine oxidase inhibitors were used, and doses of tricyclic antidepressants were half to one‐third lower than those used to treat younger depressed adults. Antidepressants, which pose a risk to the elderly patient, were overprescribed and underdosed.