Objectives: To assess the prevalence and characteristics of psychotropic medication-related hospitalizations in older people.

Design: Systematic review with meta-analysis.

Setting and participants: Older adults (≥65 years of age) with psychotropic-related hospitalizations.

Methods: A search of published literature was performed in Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and Scopus from 2010 to March 2020. Three authors independently screened titles, abstracts, and full texts of relevant studies for relevance. Two authors independently extracted full text data, including characteristics, measures of causality, prevalence data, and performed quality assessment. A meta-analysis was conducted to estimate pooled prevalence and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of psychotropic-related hospitalizations using random effects models. Heterogeneity was explored using subgroup analyses.

Results: Of 815 potentially relevant studies, 11 were included in the final analysis. Five studies were cross-sectional studies, 5 were cohort studies, and 1 was a case control study. The majority of studies were rated as good quality. Psychotropic medications contributed to 2.1% (95% CI 1.2%-3.3%) of total hospitalizations and 11.3% (95% CI 8.2%-14.8%) of adverse drug event-related hospitalizations. The main psychotropic medications attributable to hospitalizations were antidepressants, hypnotics, sedatives, and antipsychotics.

Conclusions and implications: Psychotropic medications are a significant contributor to hospitalizations in older adults. The risk of hospitalization was greatest for those taking antidepressants, antipsychotics, hypnotics, and sedatives. Future studies should aim to address specific medication subgroups and implement uniform adverse drug event-related classification systems to improve comparability across studies.