Warning about Anti-Psychotic drugs!
By admin ~ January 11th, 2009. Filed under: Uncategorized.
Again apologize for the lack of posts recently, once I get past my deadline at work I’ll have some more time to post. Until then, its been long hours. However, I read an article today that grabbed my attention and I really wanted to inform my readers about what I learned. Apparently, recent studies have proven that the anti-psychotic drugs given to Alzheimer’s sufferers may actually double their risk of death (over 2 to 3 years). The article I read is here and excerpt is below:
British researchers found long-term treatment with antipsychotics nearly doubled patients’ risk of death, according to a study appearing in Lancet Neurology.
The findings, based on a look at 165 patients, aren’t a bolt out of the blue. There have long been concerns about using these powerful meds to treat dementia patients, who tend to be elderly and frail (see here and here). Still, they bolster current recommendations that the drugs only be used under circumstances of extreme agitation or disturbance and for short periods.
This placebo-controlled, double-blind study looked at Alzheimer’s patients in nursing homes in the U.K. who were already taking one of four antipsychotics (J&J’s Risperdal, haloperidol, chlorpromazine and trifluoperazine) and assigned them to continue on their meds or to take a sugar pill for 12 months.
There wasn’t any difference in mortality for the first six months, but at one, two or three years, patients in the antipsychotic group were nearly twice as likely to have died as those in the placebo group.
This study concerned me, since my father was actually given Risperdal during the time that he was in a care facility as a form of “chemical restraint”. Apparently, this is something that nursing homes have been using frequently even when their patients have no psychotic problems (see here).
I admit its a difficult problem because sometimes patients at care facilities can become very agitated and these medications help calm them down. On the other hand, from my own experiences of witnessing their care and from these articles, it is not rare that the reason these medications are given is to just “put the patients to sleep and out of commission” for a period of time so the caregivers don’t need to watch them. Thoughts and comments?
Thoughts and comments?
