Improper sedative use kills Alzheimer’s patients early

Results of a five-year study conducted by the Alzheimer’s Research Trust in Britain has found that dementia and Alzheimer’s patients were dying an average of half a year earlier than otherwise when they were prescribed common sedatives, known as neuroleptics.

Medical experts say neuroleptics should be used only “as a last resort” on the most severely agitated or violent patients.

However, the UK research indicated that the drugs are being prescribed for as many as 40% – or about 150,000 – of all Alzheimer’s patients in UK nursing homes.

The lead researcher on the project, Professor Clive Ballard of King’s College in London, noted that patients with dementia are three times more likely to have a stroke if they take the drugs.

“It is very clear that even over a six-month period of treatment, there is no benefit of neuroleptics in treating the behavior in people with Alzheimer’s disease when the symptoms are mild,” Prof Ballard says.

Prof Ballard and colleagues studied 165 residents with Alzheimer’s disease at more than 100 UK nursing homes who were on a neuroleptic drug. The drugs studied were risperidone, chlorpromazine, haloperidol, thioridazine and trifluoperazine.

During the study, researchers stopped the drugs for half of the patients and put them on a placebo. They described the results as “striking”.

At the end of the second year, 78% of the dummy pill group was still alive compared with 55% of those who had continued to use neuroleptics. At 36 months the figures were 62% versus 35%, and at 42 months 60% versus 25%.