Dementia patients treated with anti-psychotic die early
A five-year investigation published yesterday found that, on average, patients with Alzheimer’s who are treated with anti-psychotic drugs die six months earlier.
The study, funded by the British-based Alzheimer’s Research trust, found that only a third of patients prescribed the drugs were alive, compared with two-thirds of those not taking them.
The scientists, who monitored 165 Alzheimer’ patients in nursing homes, also found that the drug was associated with a significant deterioration in verbal fluency and cognitive function. The treatment was found to be of no benefit to patients with the mildest symptoms of dementia.
Anti-psychotic drugs are primarily used to treat schizophrenia, severe depression, bipolar disorder and other causes of psychotic behaviour.
Using the drugs to treat restlessness, wandering and the intermittent aggression found in some patients with dementia is considered inappropriate.
Last year, a study of 345 residents in nursing homes and long-stay units in the west of Ireland found anti-psychotic drugs were inappropriately used to treat patients with dementia.
Of the 80 patients prescribed regular anti-psychotic medication, 41 (51%) were receiving the medication to treat dementia.
Spokeswoman for the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, Sarah O’Callaghan, said the organisation had been highlighting the inappropriate use of medication for the management of behavioural symptoms associated with dementia for some time now.
“It is disturbing that the new research suggests that the medication is impacting on the risk of death in people suffering from dementia,” she said.
The new study also highlighted the urgent need to find better ways of dealing with people with dementia.
And, Ms O’Callaghan added, the behavioural symptoms associated with dementia could be more appropriately addressed by having specialist training for care staff and a more appropriate environment enabling patients to move around easily, freely and happily.
Consultant geriatrician at Merlin Park Regional Hospital, Galway, Dr Sean O’Keeffe, said the research added to doctors’ fears that use of anti-psychotic drugs to treat dementia increased mortality.
There was also concern that the drugs increased the risk of stroke.
A problem was trying to figure out the risk benefit, said Dr O’Keeffe, who pointed out that it might be reasonable to use the medication when people have severe, distressing and dangerous symptoms.
The interim Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), has been charged with monitoring nursing home standards and it is understood that the use of the drug as a chemical restraint as well as physical restraints in such settings are issues high on its agenda.
