Antipsychotic use drops with CMS dementia effort

Abstract

The agency’s National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care has had a goal of reducing antipsychotic drug usage by 15% by the end of 2013, CMS said in an August 27 news release. Approximately 30,000 fewer nursing home residents are on these medications now than would have been. “I think the reductions in antipsychotic use observed to date are very encouraging,” Ryan Carnahan, PharmD, MS, BCPP, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, told Pharmacy Today. “This is refl ective of a widespread, coordinated effort by stakeholders and providers to implement education and training to help change the way dementia care is delivered.” CMS launched the National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care on March 29, 2012. “These reductions took place in less than a year,” noted Carnahan.