Nursing homes in Northern Ireland are prescribing the wrong psychiatric drugs to more than half their elderly patients, a damning study has found.

“Inappropriate” use of sedatives, sleeping tablets, anti-depressants and other psychoactive medicines was discovered among 51 per cent of patients at 22 homes in the north, prompting concerns that lives could be at risk.

Some pensioners surveyed were receiving as many as 10 different types of medication.

The Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) research has led to calls by one doctor for a tightening of the inspection process and increased involvement of pharmacists in re- viewing the prescribing of drugs in old people’s homes.

Dr Sean Donnelly, a north Belfast GP, said he was “shocked” by the results and urged families with loved ones in nursing homes to question the type of medication being administered.

“Many nursing-home patients are very elderly and have a lot of disease, which obviously leads to different drugs being prescribed, but the fact that more than half have been given the wrong medicine is quite shocking,” he said.

“A substantial amount of nursing-home work is dealt with by the out-of-hours GP service where there is a wide range of doctors with different levels of experience – that might lead to a lack of continuity.

“But the results of this study should prompt doctors to look at their own prescribing rates and also remind families to approach GPs if they have any concerns.

“More than 40 of my patients are in nursing homes and I would have no problem if a relative queried medicines being given to them.”

Dr Donnelly, who is a spokesman for the British Medical Association, also warned that continued use of inappropriate drugs could “represent a risk to patients”.

The research, led by Dr Susan Patterson, compared an American method of pharmaceutical care – known as the Fleetwood NI model – with practices in Northern Ireland.

A total of 334 residents were involved. After a year using the Fleetwood model, which involves more discussion with those involved in the patients’ care, there was a

74 per cent decrease in the number of patients being given the wrong drugs.

The Irish News reported last year that an Alzheimer’s charity was receiving up to 100 calls a week about “frightening” standards of care in Northern Ireland’s nursing homes, with dementia patients often “ignored and over-sedated”.

Dr Patterson said her study’s results showed that pharmacist intervention could reduce medi- cation risks for nursing-home residents and “improve the quality of prescribing”.

The research is being presented this week at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester.

A separate QUB study found that staff shortages in nursing homes might lead to elderly patients being given more drugs to keep them calm and “make life easier”.