Abstract
<b>Background:</b> Benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRA) and clomethiazole are widely prescribed in patients hospitalised on psychogeriatric wards in spite of their associated risks and adverse respiratory outcomes. <b>Aims:</b> To describe the patterns of BZRA and clomethiazole prescription in patients hospitalised on four psychogeriatric wards, to look for associations between patients9 characteristics and the prescription of these drugs, and to evaluate if there is an association between BZRA deprescription and clomethiazole prescription (switching effect). <b>Methods:</b> Data were collected retrospectively from all patients having been hospitalised on one of the four psychogeriatric wards at CHUV (Switzerland) during 2019. Associations between patients9 characteristics and BZRA or clomethiazole prescription were calculated using logistic regression. Association between BZRA and clomethiazole prescription were calculated using McNemar test. <b>Results:</b> BZRA prescription was 33.6% at admission and 22.9% at discharge, and clomethiazole prescription went from 41.7% to 35.9%. Patients with a diagnosis of substance abuse were at higher risk of BZRA prescription (aOR 4.28, p-value 0.017) whereas age was found to be a protective factor (aOR 0.94, p-value 0.001). No risk or protective factors were identified for clomethiazole prescription. Finally, there was no increase in clomethiazole prescription when BZRA prescription was reduced (p<0.001). <b>Conclusions:</b> BZRA and clomethiazole were widely prescribed among patients hospitalised on psychogeriatric wards. We did not found an increase in clomethiazole prescription when BZRA prescription was decreased.
Published Version
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