Study indicates antipsychotic use increases incidence of hip fracture

The Journal of the American Medical Directors Association recently published a study on the incidence of hip fractures among older adults afflicted with dementia and using anti-psychotic medications.  The study reports that there is a higher incidence of hip fractures among this patient population.

The study reviewed data from the Minimum Data Sets (MDS's) from nursing homes.  This is a form which nursing homes use to report data to the federal government.  This means that the entire study population was nursing home residents.

The takeaway from this:  anti-psychotic usage is linked to a higher rate of hip fractures, likely due to falls by nursing home patients.  This means that anti-psychotic usage should be taken into account in doing fall risk assessments of nursing home residents and developing fall prevention care plans.  It also means that the use of anti-psychotics to address issues associated with dementia should be given careful consideration before proceeding with that kind of drug therapy.