Quality of psychopharmacological medication use in nursing home residents.

Background: Despite well-documented evidence regarding antipsychotic use in older adults residing in nursing homes (NHs), there is a lack of evidence-based use and quality benchmarks for other psychopharmacological medications (PPMs), including antidepressants, anxiolytics, and sedative-hypnotics.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and patterns of use of PPMs and to measure the quality of PPM use.

Methods: Using a 5% random sample of 2007 Medicare claims data linked to the Minimum Data Set 2.