Background: The study evaluated the effects of an annual medication assessment conducted as part of a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) on the prevalence of psychotropic drug use in community-dwelling elderly people.

Methods: Randomly selected persons (n = 1000) aged ≥75 years living in the city of Kuopio, Finland were randomized to intervention and control groups. The intervention group underwent an annual (2004–2006) medication assessment as part of a CGA by physicians. Data on drug use were gathered by interviews at baseline (2004) and in three following years (2005–2007). Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were applied to explore whether the prevalence of psychotropic drug use differed between the community-dwelling participants of the intervention (n = 361) and control groups (n = 339) over time.

Results: At baseline, nearly 40% of the participants used psychotropic drugs in each group. In the intervention group, the study physicians implemented 126 psychotropic drug-related changes, 39% of which were persistent after one year. The prevalence of use of psychotropic drugs, antipsychotics and anxiolytic/hypnotics did not differ between the groups over time. The prevalence of antidepressant use remained constant in the intervention group, but increased in the control group (p-value for interaction = 0.039). The prevalence of concomitant use of psychotropic drugs decreased non-significantly in the intervention group, but increased in the control group (p-value for interaction = 0.009).

Conclusions: Conducting an annual medication assessment outside the usual primary health care system does not appear to reduce the prevalence of psychotropic drug use in community-dwelling elderly people. However, it may prevent concomitant use of psychotropic drugs.