Alzheimer's 'death risk' brings call for drug rethink

Published on Thursday 8 January 2009 20:59

ANTI-PSYCHOTIC drugs can double the risk of death among Alzheimer's patients given the medicines to prevent disturbing and troublesome symptoms, a study claimed yesterday.

The findings prompted immediate calls to end over-prescribing of the powerful drugs to elderly people with the most common form of dementia.

Anti-psychotic drugs are normally given to people with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia.

But they are often also used to reduce some of symptoms caused by Alzheimer's, including severe aggression, delusions and agitation.

The drugs are said to offer modest improvements over periods of six to 12 weeks.

However, resorting to the medications to treat Alzheimer's is controversial, as studies have shown they are associated with a range of serious conditions, including Parkinson's-like symptoms and strokes.

Now research, involving patients in Edinburgh, has looked at the effect of giving anti-psychotics to Alzheimer's sufferers over long periods of time.

The researchers, writing in The Lancet Neurology, found that over two years survival rates fell by 35 per cent and after three years the risk of death almost doubled.

Although the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends the drugs should be used only in severe cases for short periods, the average time they are prescribed for Alzheimer's is one to two years.

Alzheimer Scotland said it had campaigned vigorously against the misuse of anti-psychotic medication, which is estimated to cost the country up to 8 million a year.