Clinical guidelines advise against the use of high-risk central nervous system (CNS)–active medications in older adults with cognitive impairment because these drugs are associated with an increased risk of delirium, falls, and hospitalizations. A recent study examined contemporary prescribing patterns of CNS-active medications in older adults by analyzing Medicare healthcare claims data from 2013 to 2021. The study assessed five drug classes: antidepressants with strong anticholinergic properties, antipsychotics, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, and non-benzodiazepine hypnotics.
The analysis found that CNS-active medications were prescribed to 25% of individuals with dementia , 22% of those with cognitive impairment without dementia, and 17% of individuals with normal cognition. Although the prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescribing declined from 15.7% to 11.4% over the study…
