Summary: New research identifies acute and post-acute care settings, such as emergency rooms, hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities, as the primary locations where risky, cognition-altering medications are first prescribed to older adults.
The study reveals that patients with dementia are disproportionately likely to be started on antipsychotics or benzodiazepines in these high-stress environments rather than at their regular doctor’s office. Crucially, these prescriptions are “sticky,” with over half of dementia patients still taking the medications a year after the initial hospital-based prescription.
Key Facts
- Disproportionate Initiation: While only 22% of medical visits for dementia patients happen in acute/post-acute settings, 43% of their antipsychotic prescriptions originate there.
- The “Sticky” Effect: Prescriptions initiated in these settings tend to persist. Approximately 51% of dementia patients started on these medications in a hospital setting were still taking them one year later.
- Vulnerable Populations: Patients with dementia or Cognitive Impairment Not Dementia (CIND) are the most likely to receive these prescriptions, despite being at the highest risk for side effects like falls, severe confusion (delirium), and re-hospitalization.
- Lack of Indication: This study follows prior UCLA research showing that up to 70% of prescriptions for Central Nervous System (CNS)-active medications lacked a documented clinical reason for being prescribed.
- Targeted Intervention: Researchers argue that to curb overprescribing, policymakers must focus on the “transition of care” moments when a patient leaves a hospital or nursing facility.
Source: UCLA
Initial prescriptions for medications affecting cognition, such as antipsychotics, are disproportionately likelier to come from acute and post-acute settings such as emergency rooms, hospitals and skilled nursing facilities than they are from doctors’ offices, new UCLA research suggests.
The largest proportion of these medications are prescribed for people with cognitive impairment, such as dementia, who are particularly susceptible to ill effects linked to these medications such as falls, confusion, and hospitalization.
“Medications such as antipsychotics and benzodiazepines are known to affect cognition, increase delirium, and increase fall risk for older adults,” said Dr. Dan Ly, assistant professor of medicine, division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the VA Greater Los Angeles and the lead author on the research letter.
“In addition, prescriptions for these medications are “sticky” and persistent; for example, for older adults with dementia who are prescribed one of these medications affecting cognition, over half continue to take such a medication a year later.”
The findings will be published April 28 in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Network Open.
There has been a push to reduce prescriptions of these cognition-altering medications, Ly said.
“Our results suggest that efforts to reduce these prescriptions might have the greatest impact if we focus on acute and post-acute settings,” he said.
The researchers analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) of adults aged 66 years and older linked to Medicare fee-for-service claims between Jan. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2021.
They looked at four medication classes: benzodiazepines, nonbenzodiazepine hypnotics, antipsychotics and anticholinergics. They examined the clinical setting where the prescription was first initiated, comparing initiations from acute and post-acute settings (that also included skilled nursing facilities) with initiations from doctors’ offices.
Patients were grouped into one of three categories: No cognitive impairment; cognitive impairment, but not dementia (CIND); or dementia.
Overall, 14% of patients with no cognitive impairment, 17% of those with CIND, and 22% of people with dementia received a new prescription for one of the cognition affecting medications in acute and post-acute settings. Additionally, 38% of those with no cognitive impairment, 44% of those with CIND, and 51% of those with dementia continued using those medications a year later.
Compared with overall patient visits to such settings, a disproportionate number of these prescriptions were initiated in acute and post-acute settings. For instance, 43% of antipsychotic medications were initiated in acute and post-acute settings for patients with dementia while only 22% of overall patient visits were to such settings for patients with dementia.
“We were surprised by just how much more frequently medications affecting cognition were prescribed from non-office settings,” Ly said. “We shed light on the locations of prescriptions for these medications, allowing for better targeting of interventions to reduce their prescribing.”
The findings are limited by the researchers’ assumption that the last setting the patients were in was where the prescriptions were initiated. The next step in the research is to examine the characteristics of providers who prescribe these medications more frequently, Ly said.
“This work builds on our prior research, which found that up to 70% of prescriptions for Central Nervous System-active medications lacked a documented clinical indication. That highlighted an urgent need to curb risky overprescribing,” said Dr. John N. Mafi, associate professor of medicine at the Geffen School and the study’s senior author.
“Now, our latest study gives policymakers and clinicians a roadmap, pointing exactly to where they should target their interventions first: acute and post-acute care settings.”
Dr. Annie Yang, Mei Leng, Dr. Catherine Sarkisian, and Cheryl Damberg co-authored the paper.
Funding: This study was funded by award R01AG070017-01 (Dr Mafi), Beeson Emerging Leaders in Aging Research Career Development Award K76AG064392-01A1 (Dr Mafi), award RF1AG094784 (Dr Ly), Midcareer in Patient-Oriented Aging Research award 1K24AG04789 (Dr Sarkisian), and US Deprescribing Research Network award 1R33AG086944-01 (Dr Sarkisian) from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health; Research Career Development Award IK2HX003836 from the US Department of Veterans Affairs Health System Research (Dr Ly), and UCLA Clinical Translational Science Institute award UL1TR001881 (Dr Sarkisian) from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health.
Key Questions Answered:
A: Hospitals and ERs are often dealing with acute behavioral crises or severe agitation in dementia patients. Clinicians may use antipsychotics or sedatives to ensure immediate safety or manage “sundowning.” The problem is that these “temporary” fixes often become permanent parts of the patient’s daily medication list.
A: Beyond “brain fog,” these medications significantly increase the risk of physical injury. Antipsychotics and benzodiazepines interfere with balance and reaction time, leading to a much higher rate of hip fractures and head injuries from falls.
A: The research highlights a “roadmap” for better care. Families should ask for a full medication reconciliation during hospital discharge. Ask specifically: “Which of these meds are new, why were they started, and when is the plan to stop them?”
Editorial Notes:
- This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
- Journal paper reviewed in full.
- Additional context added by our staff.
About this neurology and neuropharmacology research news
Author: Enrique Rivero
Source: UCLA
Contact: Enrique Rivero – UCLA
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Initiation Setting and Persistence of Medications Affecting Cognition in Older Adults” by Dan P. Ly, Annie W. Yang, Mei Leng, Catherine Sarkisian, Cheryl L. Damberg, and John N. Mafi. JAMA Network Open
DOI:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.10234
Abstract
Initiation Setting and Persistence of Medications Affecting Cognition in Older Adults
Medications that adversely affect cognition, eg, antipsychotics, may increase delirium and fall risk among older adults, but they remain frequently prescribed.
To better understand the context of their prescribing, this study examined the clinical settings in which these medications were initiated and the rate at which patients continue to take them 1 year later.
