Clinical Situations Leading to the Prescription of Neuroleptics by General Practitioner in the Elderly. Practice Survey

Behavioral disorders of psychiatric or neurological origin in the elderly are an emerging public health problem. Its management can include a prescription of psychotropic drugs (anxiolytics, hypnotics, neuroleptics, antidepressants for the most part). Many studies highlight the misuse of psychotropic drugs in this specific and vulnerable population, as well as the need for targeted actions.

As for neuroleptics, there is a deleterious over-prescription in the so-called productive behavioral disorders (cries, agitation, aggressiveness, ambulation), in particular in the patient with Alzheimer's disease (80% of patients) or related. The same applies to behavioral disorders in an acute episode of confusion, which also constitute a situation for the prescribing of psychotropic drugs in the elderly. The frailty of the elderly associated with neuroleptics is the cause of a significant iatrogenic (falls, confusions, excessive sedation, etc.), iatrogeny is largely avoidable.

There is little data on the representation of behavioral disorders in the elderly, whereas the recognition and management of behavioral disorders are functions of the tolerance of the entourage and the training of the caregivers. Significant data exist in the literature about diagnosis, risk factors, factors favoring or triggering behavioral disorders and somatic pathologies to be sought urgently.

The available recommendations on the drug treatment of behavioral disorders are complex and inappropriate in light of new data, including the dangerousness of psychotropic drugs. The deleterious effect of long-term drug treatments is proved. There is no validated drug strategy, especially in acute confusions of the elderly.

One study showed that there was a change in the type of neuroleptic prescribed between 2003 and 2010. Half of the general practitioners studied during this period switched from a first-generation neuroleptic to a second-generation neuroleptic. Nevertheless, the type of molecule chosen remains at the discretion of the treating physician or even required a psychiatric opinion or a passage in the emergencies. In the case where the practitioner initiates a prescription in office, in the home or in EHPAD, certain situations require the choice of a neuroleptic with or without pre-therapeutic assessment.