High-risk medications in persons living with dementia-A randomized clinical trial

High-risk medications in persons living with dementia-A randomized clinical trial
JAMA Internal Medicine; Sonal Singh, MD, MPH; Xiaojuan Li, PhD, MSPH; Noelle M. Cocoros, DSc, MPH; Mary T. Antonelli, PhD, RN, MPH; Ramya Avula, MS; Sybil L. Crawford, PhD; Inna Dashevsky, MS; Hassan Fouayzi, PhD, MS; Thomas P. Harkins, MA, MPH; Kathleen M. Mazor, EdD; Ashley I. Michnick, PharmD, PhD; Lauren Parlett, PhD; Mark Paullin, MS; Richard Platt, MD, MSc; Paula A. Rochon, MD, MPH; Cassandra Saphirak, MA; Mia Si, MS; Yunping Zhou, MS; Jerry H. Gurwitz, MD; 10/24
Question: Does a one-time mailed educational intervention to patients and their clinicians reduce prescribing of antipsychotics, sedative-hypnotics, and strong anticholinergic agents in community-dwelling persons living with Alzheimer disease (AD) or AD-related dementias (ADRD)? In this randomized clinical trial of 12,787 patients, there were no clinically meaningful or statistically significant differences from the mailed educational intervention compared with usual care in continued use of medications targeted for deprescribing. These findings suggest medication-specific educational mailings targeting patients with AD or ADRD and their clinicians are not effective in reducing the use of high-risk medications.