ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2010
Psychotropic drug use among older people in general practice: discrepancies between opinion and practice.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Barriers and enablers for deprescribing benzodiazepine receptor agonists in older adults: a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies using the theoretical domains framework.Implementation science : IS · 2022Pooled it
- Trial
- Quantifying age-related disparities in outpatient psychotherapy utilization: a representation quotient analysis of routine data from 29 university clinics in Germany.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- The Association Between Psychotropic Medication Use and Gait and Mobility Impairment in Community-Dwelling Older People: Data From The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2025Article
- Barriers to Deprescribing Benzodiazepines in Older Adults in a Survey of European Physicians.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Benzodiazepine use in Spain: risks and perspectives on the current situation and proposals for their rational use.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- GPs' reflections on prescribing addictive hypnotics to older people: a qualitative study.BJGP open · 2024Article
- Barriers, facilitators and needs to deprescribe benzodiazepines and other sedatives in older adults: a mixed methods study of primary care provider perspectives.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Role of the prescriber in supporting patients to discontinue benzodiazepines: a qualitative study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2021Article
- Patterns of benzodiazepine prescription among older adults in Switzerland: a cross-sectional analysis of claims data.BMJ open · 2020Article
- Modification of Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing Following Fall-Related Hospitalizations in Older Adults.Drugs & aging · 2019Article
- Attitudes and behaviour towards psychotropic drug prescribing in Swedish primary care: a questionnaire study.BMC family practice · 2019Article
- General practitioners' prescriptions of benzodiazepines, Z-hypnotics and opioid analgesics for elderly patients during direct and indirect contacts. A cross-sectional, observational study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2018Observational
- Psychiatric comorbidity among terminally ill patients in general practice in the Netherlands: a comparison between patients with cancer and heart failure.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2013Article
- Brains, bones, and aging: psychotropic medications and bone health among older adults.Current osteoporosis reports · 2012Review
- Specialist prescribing of psychotropic drugs to older persons in Sweden--a register-based study of 188,024 older persons.BMC psychiatry · 2012Article
- Consumption of pharmaceuticals in primary non-Alzheimer's degenerative dementias : a cross-sectional study by the Registry of Dementias of Girona (ReDeGi).Drugs & aging · 2012Article
- 'They won't do any harm and might do some good': time to think again on the use of antidepressants?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2011Article
- Why do GPs prescribe psychotropic drugs when they would rather provide alternative psychological interventions?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2010Article
- Challenges to advocacy in primary health care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2010Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe use of psychotropic drugs has increased over recent years in France. GPs are the first prescribers, especially for older patients.
aimTo analyse discrepancies between GPs' opinions and practice when prescribing psychotropic drugs to older patients.
settingPostal surveys sent to GPs all over mainland France. DESIGN OF STUDY: Cross-sectional postal study.
methodA questionnaire collected data on characteristics of GPs' practices, their opinions about psychotropic drug consumption in older people, and a full description of their last older patient receiving a psychotropic drug and seen last by the GP on that particular day.
resultsA total of 350 participating GPs saw 2498 patients aged > or =65 years. Among these patients, the prevalence of psychotropic use was 32.1% (803/2498) for anxiolytics/hypnotics, and 17.5% for antidepressants (438/2498). A total of 91% of GPs agreed that it was possible to reduce or stop psychotropic drugs for these patients. Characteristics of 339 patients taking psychotropic drug were reported: 85.8% (291/339) received at least one anxiolytic/hypnotic and 56.9% (193/339) received at least one antidepressant; there were prescribed for more than 1 year in 68.4% (199/291) and 43.5% (84/193) of the cases respectively. GPs stated that it was possible to reduce or stop anxiolytic/hypnotic drugs for only 27% (79/291) of these patients. Barriers to doing this were patients' refusal (79%), and the absence of any local offer of psychotherapy (73%) or alternative therapy (70%).
conclusionA mismatch exists between GPs' intent (91%) and practice (27%) regarding reduction of psychotropic prescription in individuals aged > or =65 years. The barriers encountered should be examined further to help physicians improve management of psychotropic prescription.
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Registered trials
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