Medication reviews
People with dementia (who are well enough) can expect an annual assessment with their GP, which should include a discussion about any treatments. However less than half (48%) of people with a dementia diagnosis had had a medication review in the year prior to January 202620,32
Research indicates that people with dementia, already requiring medicine for age-related comorbidities, are likely to be prescribed more medicines. More than half of people with dementia are taking five or more medicines a day and on average take five more medicines than those without dementia.33,34
A significant proportion of these medicines may be inappropriate. Adverse health outcomes, including hospitalisations and mortality, are more likely to occur in dementia, with psychoactive medications, particularly with antipsychotics and benzodiazepines. NICE recommends minimising the use of medicines associated with increased anticholinergic burden, and if possible, to look for alternatives.1,33,34,35
Medication reviews should help reduce the number of potentially inappropriate medications being taken. However, there is little data to show the impact on how well this helps with patients’ medication management capacity or adherence, or on quality of life or mortality.33