The inappropriate prescription of psychotropic drugs may
account partially for the discrepancy between low levels of
distress and high levels of drug use among older persons.
Inappropriate prescriptions include questionable drug
combinations (such as two benzodiazepines), excessive
treatment duration, and drugs contraindicated for use by
older people (such as long half-life benzodiazepines).
Authors estimate that one-fifth to one-half of psychotropic
drug prescriptions to the elderly are "inappropriate"
[4,16,31,32].