How community pharmacists can help reduce antipsychotic use in care homes

Describes the RedUSe project in Tasmania, Australia, in which 25 care homes with more than 3000 patients were allocated to antipsychotic interventions by community pharmacists (n = 13 homes) or usual care. Over the 6-month project there was a significant reduction in the proportion of residents in intervention homes who were taking antipsychotics (20.3% to 18.6%, p less than 0.05), while in control homes there was a non-significant increase (20.9% to 22.9%, p = 0.2). (15 refs.)