• Florindo Stella, Dorgival Caetano, Jaime Lisandro Pacheco, Elisandra Villela Gasparetto Sé, and Acioly Luiz Tavares Lacerda.
• Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, São Paulo, CEP 13506-4246, Brazil. fstella@rc.unesp.br
• Sao Paulo Med J. 2006 Sep 7; 124 (5): 253256253-6.

Context And ObjectiveAlthough psychotropics are one of the classes of medications most prescribed in nursing homes for the elderly, studies examining prescribing patterns are limited in both number and scope. The present study was undertaken to investigate factors associated with general psychotropic use in a nursing home in Brazil.Design And SettingRetrospective observational study at the Nursing Home for the Elderly, Institute of Biosciences, Universidade Estadual Paulista.MethodsInformation on prescriptions was retrieved from the medical records of 108 elderly residents in a nursing home. Sixty-five of these patients, with mean age 74.5 years (+/-standard deviation 9.4 years), who were taking medications on a regular basis, comprised the sample. The effects of demographic and clinical variables on the psychotropic prescription pattern were examined.ResultsFemales were more likely to receive psychotropics (p = 0.038). Individuals on medicines for cardiovascular diseases received psychotropics less frequently (p = 0.001). The number of prescribed psychotropics correlated negatively with both age (p = 0.009) and number of non-psychotropic drugs (p = 0.009).ConclusionsAlthough preliminary, the present results indicated that cardiovascular disease was the clinical variable that most influenced psychotropic prescription. Physicians' overconcern regarding drug interactions might at least partially explain this result. Further investigations involving larger sample sizes from different regions are warranted to confirm these findings.

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