'Danger' Drugs Still Being Used in Dementia Care, Charity Warns
Posted on: Sunday, 10 July 2005, 03:01 CDT
People with dementia are still being prescribed a 'dangerous' drug treatment a year after a drug watchdog ruled that the drugs increased the risk of stroke.
A study by the Alzheimer's Society found that doctors continue to prescribe neuroleptics for people with dementia even though the Committee on the Safety of Medicines (CSM) warned against their use in 2004. The CSM said they increased the risk of stroke threefold, and in April the US Food and Drug Administration highlighted 17 studies which showed that patients with dementia who were given neuroleptics were 1.6 to 1.7 times more likely to die than those given a placebo.
The Alzheimer's Society research, conducted in 12 nursing homes across the UK, found that in September 2004, half of those with dementia were being prescribed neurolpetics. Now, despite the CSM ruling, 42 per cent are still being prescribed the drugs.
Clive Ballard, director of research for the society, said: 'It is shocking that these dangerous drug treatments are still being prescribed so widely to such vulnerable members of society.'
He added: 'No one would choose to take a drug that is dangerous and ineffective, so why are they being prescribed to people with dementia?'
Meanwhile, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is expected to announce this month whether it plans to go ahead with plans to ban drug treatments for Alzheimer's disease on the NHS on the grounds of cost-effectiveness. But the Alzheimer's Society says newly published research suggests that anti-dementia drugs not only alleviate symptoms but also reduce the destructive processes that kill brain cells.
* Details of the research, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry and Neurobiology of Disease, are available in the news section of the society's website: www.alzheimers.org.uk
Copyright RCN Publishing Company Ltd. Jul 2005
Source: Nursing Older People
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