Drug News
Medication harms Alzheimer's patients
By Sue Mueller
Mar 31, 2008 - 10:45:21 PM

MONDAY March 31, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Anti-psychotic drugs given to advanced Alzheimer's patients with mild behavioral problems provide no benefit, but cause a significant deterioration in verbal skills, according to a UK study published in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine.

The study involved 165 people with advanced Alzheimer's who were living in nursing homes in Oxfordshire, Newcastle, Edinburgh and London.  Up to 60 percent of Alzheimer's patients in nursing homes were given neuroleptics to control their behavior.

Researchers from King's College London and the Universities of Oxford and Newcastle found the drugs delivered no long term benefit for most patients with mild symptoms of disturbed behaviors.  

In fact, the anti-psychotic drugs caused a marked deterioration in their verbal fluency after six months of treatment.  An analysis of the data suggests that use of neuroleptics may also increase risk of death.

Early studies have also found use of anti-psychotic drugs raised the risk of stroke and death for patients with dementia.

In the study, all patients had been given neuroleptics for three months. Then they either continued taking the same medication for another12 months, or started taking a placebo.  

The drugs used in the study included hioridazine (Melleril), chlorpromazine (Largactil), haloperidol (Serenace), trifluoperazine (Stelazine) and risperidone (Risperdal).

Clive Ballard, lead author of the study said, according to BBC, as short as six-months of treatment would cause harm Alzheimer's patients with mild behavioral problem, suggesting that neuroleptics should not be used to treat mild symptoms.

But for people with severe behavioral symptoms, balancing the benefits against adverse effects of the anti-psychotic drugs is not easy.  

The Alzheimer's Research Trust in the UK was cited as saying that neuroleptics should only be prescribed long-term to dementia patients with sever behavioral problems and they should be used only as a last resort when non-drug management has been tried and failed.

from BBC NEWS