title: Dementia management programme in a community setting and the use of psychotropic drugs in the elderly population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The number of elderly persons in society is increasing, placing additional demands on the public health system. Extensive use of drugs is common in the elderly, and in patients with dementia this further increases their vulnerability. Since 1998 the municipality of Kalmar, Sweden, has worked with a dementia management programme that focuses on early intervention in order to identify the patient's help needs at an early stage. An important part of the programme aims at optimizing pharmacological treatment. The objective of the present study is to evaluate whether the dementia programme had a secondary effect on the use of psychotropic medication in the elderly population in general.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective, drug utilization study analysing the use of selected drug categories by the elderly (75 years and older) in the Kalmar municipality compared with the whole of Sweden.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that the dementia programme contributed to an improvement in psychotropic drug use in the elderly as a secondary effect. Furthermore, the implementation of this programme did not require allocation of extra funding.
authors: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet Alzheimer Disease Research Centre, Stockholm, Sweden. erik.jedenius@ki.se
authors: Erik
authors: E
authors: Jedenius
authors: Kristina
authors: K
authors: Johnell
authors: Johan
authors: J
authors: Fastbom
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Strömqvist
authors: Bengt
authors: B
authors: Winblad
authors: Niels
authors: N
authors: Andreasen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy; D018680:Cholinergic Antagonists / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003704:Dementia / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D019468:Disease Management; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013548:Sweden
chemical_list: D018680:Cholinergic Antagonists; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs