Studies have shown that residents in nursing homes may be exposed to inappropriate medication, especially with psychoactive drugs. This increases the risk of adverse effects.

Mission We identified, evaluated and compiled research on the effect of interventions to reduce inappropriate use of medicines in nursing homes. The report was commissioned by the Norwegian Directorate of Health in connection with the work of Care Plan 2015.

Main findings Educational outreach or educational interventions given alone or as part of a complex package aimed at health professionals may in some contexts reduce inappropriate drug use. The quality of evidence for these results in a nursing home setting varies from very low to low. Medical review by pharmacists in an interdisciplinary collaboration with the nursing home physician and other relevant health professionals may in some contexts reduce inappropriate drug use.  The quality of evidence for these results varies from very low to low. A geriatric assessment team responsible for all medical treatment of the elderly demonstrated a statistical significant effect on prescribing of drugs in one study. The study had few participants and a high risk of bias in the results. The evidence is therefore of too low quality to be able to judge whether the intervention affects inappropriate use of medicines. Early psychiatric intervening had no statistically significant effect on the use of psychoactive drugs. Since the quality of the evidence for this result is very low, we cannot determine whether the intervention affects inappropriate use of drugs or not. Activating residents combined with educational meetings for health personnel had no statistically significant effect on the use of antipsychotics or the number of drugs used in total. Since the quality of the evidence for this result is very low, we cannot determine whether the intervention affects the use of drugs or not. The quality of the evidence is too low to assess whether interventions to reduce inappropriate medication affects health outcomes.