Medication Use with Implications for Sleep in Elderly Dementia Caregivers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify numbers and types of prescription and nonprescription medications, their association with gender and race, and their implications for sleep disturbances in 86 elderly caregivers of patients with dementia. Using measures of central tendency and dispersion, chi-square analysis or Fisher's exact test, results indicated subjects took the same number of prescription (M = 1.5, SD =1.55) and slightly fewer nonprescription (M=0.55, SD=0.76) medications as the general elderly population, with no particular associations between gender and race. However, 8 of 15 categories of medications consumed had the potential to cause sleep disturbances in the population.

Keywords

Alzheimer's disease caregivers dementia non-prescription medication prescription medication psychotropic drug use research sleep disturbance

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