Variability between nursing homes in prevalence of antipsychotic use in patients with dementia.

Background: Antipsychotic drugs (APD) are widely prescribed for people with dementia residing in long term care facilities (LTCFs). Concern has been expressed that such prescribing is largely inappropriate. The objective of this study is to examine if differences in facility-level prevalence of APD use in a sample of LTCFs for patients with dementia can be explained by patient and facility-related characteristics.

Risk of acute coronary syndrome in elderly users of antipsychotic drugs: a nested case-control study.

Objective: To examine the association between antipsychotic use and the risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in elderly de novo users of antipsychotics.

Design: A community-based nested case-control study.

Setting: Pharmacy dispensing records from community pharmacies in The Netherlands were linked to hospital discharge records of 950,000 community-dwelling residents from 1998 to 2008.

Reasons to prescribe antipsychotics for the behavioral symptoms of dementia: a survey in Dutch nursing homes among physicians, nurses, and family caregivers.

Objectives: Despite serious safety concerns, prescription rates of antipsychotics for the treatment of the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia remain high, especially in nursing homes. This high prevalence of antipsychotic use cannot be explained by the modest success rate reported in the literature. In this study, we aim at clarifying the reasons for prescribing an antipsychotic drug in behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia and look at the role of nurses and family caregivers in the decision-making process that precedes the prescription of an antipsychotic drug.

Antipsychotic drug use and the risk of venous thromboembolism in elderly patients.

Objective: Our aim was to investigate the relationship between exposure to antipsychotic drugs and the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in elderly patients.

Methods: A time-matched case-control analysis nested within a cohort of 111,818 patients with at least 1 antipsychotic drug prescription during 1998 to 2008. Data were used from the PHARMO institute's database, which contains drug dispensing data from community pharmacies and hospital admission data.