ArticleJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD2020
The Use of Opioids and Antipsychotics in Elderly with Dementia - Have Opioids Replaced Antipsychotics in Treating Behavioral Symptoms in Dementia?
Article in Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review of prevalence of pain among people with dementia living in the community.BMC neurology · 2026Pooled it
- Algorithm-based pain management for people with dementia in nursing homes.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Trial
- Risk of hospitalization and opioid use in older people with dementia.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Central Nervous System-Active Medication Use in Older Adults With and Without Dementia-A Retrospective Cohort Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Observational
- Ten-Year Trends in Psychotropic Prescribing and Polypharmacy in Australian General Practice Patients with and without Dementia.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Pain, Opioid Analgesics, and Cognition: A Conceptual Framework in Older Adults.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2023Article
- Establishing the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Caregiver Targeted Intervention to Improve Pain Assessment Among Persons With Dementia.Innovation in aging · 2023Article
- Evaluation of Antipsychotic Reduction Efforts in Patients With Dementia in Veterans Health Administration Nursing Homes.The American journal of psychiatry · 2022Article
- Opioids in the Elderly Patients with Cognitive Impairment: A Narrative Review.Pain and therapy · 2022Review
- Pain and Associated Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Patients Suffering from Dementia: Challenges at Different Levels and Proposal of a Conceptual Framework.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2021Review
- Dementia and the risk of short-term readmission and mortality after a pneumonia admission.PloS one · 2021Article
- Declining Use of Potentially Inappropriate Medication in People with Dementia from 2000 to 2015: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Nationwide Register-Based Study.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2021Article
- Pain in Older Adults With Dementia: A Survey in Spain.Frontiers in neurology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOpioids are used with increasing frequency. Elderly with dementia are prescribed opioids more frequent than elderly without. One possible explanation is that opioids may be used not only to treat pain but also behavioral symptoms.
objectiveTo test the hypothesis that strong opioid use, especially transdermal formulations, had increased, especially in elderly with dementia, in parallel with a decrease in antipsychotic use.
methodsPopulation-based cross-sectional study conducted using nationwide Danish registers with data on Denmark's entire elderly population age ≥65 (2000: n = 802,106; 2015: n = 1,056,476). The registers were used to identify elderly with and without dementia and filled prescriptions for opioids and antipsychotics. Annual prevalence of opioid and antipsychotic use from 2000-2015 was calculated.
resultsPrevalence of opioid use increased by 35% (24.2 to 32.5%) among elderly with dementia and by 13% among elderly without (14.9 to 16.8%) from 2000-2015. The disproportionate increase in opioid use among elderly with dementia was mainly driven by an increase in strong opioids (dementia: 11.7 to 23.1%; without dementia: 5.9 to 7.4%). Use of antipsychotics decreased during the same period (dementia: 31.3 to 19.3%; no dementia: 4.5 to 2.7%).
conclusionFrom 2000-2015, use of opioids among the elderly increased with a disproportionately higher increase among elderly with dementia. The parallel decrease in the use of antipsychotics may suggest that opioids to some extent have replaced antipsychotics in managing behavioral symptoms, despite safety concerns and lack of evidence for effect of opioids. Future research should focus on potential risks associated with increased opioid use.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.