Polypharmacy in people with dementia: Associations with adverse health outcomes

Polypharmacy has been linked to higher risks of hospitalisation and death in community samples. It is commonly present in people with dementia but these risks have rarely been studied in this population. We aimed to investigate associations between polypharmacy and emergency department attendance, any and unplanned hospitalisation, and mortality in patients with dementia. Using a large mental health care database in South London, linked to hospitalisation and mortality data, we assembled a retrospective cohort of patients diagnosed with dementia. We ascertained number of medications prescribed at the time of dementia diagnosis and conducted multivariate Cox regression analyses. Of 4668 pati…