Changes in resident and facility risk factors for psychotropic drug use innursing homes since the Nursing Home Reform Act

The purposes of this article are to identify resident and facility risk fac tors for the use of psychotropic drugs since the implementation of the Nurs ing Home Reform Act (NHRA) and to compare these results with resident and f acility risk factors prior to the implementation of the NHRA. The results u pdate our knowledge of resident risk factors for psychotropic drug use and identify important but previously unexplored facility risk factors for thei r use. No evidence was found that particular types of nursing homes, such a s for-profits, were systematically more likely to use psychotropic drugs. T here was some evidence to suggest that operating characteristics of nursing homes, such as Medicaid census, are more influential in changing psychotro pic drug use. In addition, both resident and facility risk factors for psyc hotropic drug use differed pre- and post-implementation of the NHRA. Antips ychotic drug we increased slightly during this study period.