[Drug use on admission and discharge in a geriatric department of a psychiatric hospital].

Change in medication use was studied in patients admitted to a short-stay geriatric ward of a psychiatric hospital. One hundred ten patients were followed up until discharge from the short-stay ward, or, after transfer, until discharge from the medium-stay ward to home or to a nursing-home. Mean drug use on admission was 2.6 drugs; at discharge mean use was 2.1 drugs. Drugs most prescribed at admission were neuroleptics (41%) and benzodiazepines (39%). At discharge 15% used neuroleptics and 22% benzodiazepines. A reduction in use of cardiovascular drugs, and especially of digoxin, was found. Prescription of laxatives and vitamins, especially folic acid and vitamin B12, increased. In comparison with studies on two other geriatric wards in general hospitals in The Netherlands the most marked difference was a reduction of 17% in this study of the number of patients using benzodiazepines on discharge in contrast to an increase of 18 and 3% in the two other studies. The number of patients using neuroleptics on discharge decreased in the present study with 26%; in the two other studies respectively a decrease of 7% and a constant prescription level was found.