Reducing Falls in Residents With Dementia by Reducing Psychotropic Medication Use: Does It Work?

- Neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia require nonpharmacologic interventions.
- Medication reviews completed by the nurse practitioner, in collaboration with staff, are effective.
- Decreasing psychotropic medications does not necessarily decrease falls.

Falls in elderly patients with dementia are common and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Psychotropic medications used to treat dementia are discouraged and may contribute to patient falls. Evidence-based clinical guidelines for appropriate antipsychotic use in this population exist. A nurse practitioner-led team used evidence-based tools to reduce psychotropic medication use in residents with dementia on a memory care unit and evaluated the effect on patient falls. Despite evidence linking falls to psychotropic medications, a reduction in resident falls was not found.