More Seniors Receive Psychotropics

A study published in the May/June Health Affairs finds that more health care providers are prescribing psychotropic medications to their patients, particularly to seniors.

In an analysis of U.S. mental health care trends from 1996 through 2006, Sherry Glied, Ph.D, and Richard Frank, Ph.D., found that the number of seniors receiving psychotropic drug prescriptions doubled during that time period.“ Greater availability of medications to treat conditions like Alzheimer's and increased access to prescription drugs through the Medicare Modernization Act may have also played a role in doctors' prescribing drugs to seniors,” said Glied, a professor and chair of health policy and management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Frank is a professor of health economics at Harvard Medical School (see Unbalanced MH System Needs Major Shift in Focus).

“Trends in Mental Health Cost Growth: An Expanded Role for Management?” is posted at<http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/3/637>.▪