Educational visits to GPs and pharmacists improve prescribing

Educational visits have been shown to modify professional behaviour. On p 654 van Ejik et al conducted a randomised controlled trial to compare the effect of individual versus group educational visits to general practitioners and pharmacists. They used the number of elderly people with prescriptions for highly anticholinergic antidepressants as the outcome measure. Many people aged over 60 can have hazardous side effects to this class of drug. They found that both the individual and the group visits decreased the use of highly anticholinergic antidepressants and increased the use of less anticholinergic antidepressants in elderly people.

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Relevant Article

Reducing prescribing of highly anticholinergic antidepressants for elderly people: randomised trial of group versus individual academic detailing

Martine E C van Eijk, Jerry Avorn, Arijan J Porsius, and Anthonius de Boer
BMJ 2001 322: 654. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]