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Government breaks promise on ‘chemical cosh’ review

in
Date published: 
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
News source: 
Alzheimer’s Research Trust
Region: 
United Kingdom
Featured item on home page: 
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Rebecca Wood The government’s long-delayed review of the misuse of antipsychotic, or ‘chemical cosh’, drugs in dementia patients has still not been released, despite the health minister Phil Hope promising it will be published in May.

The government review was originally due for release in October 2008.
 
The ’s leading dementia research charity, the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, has criticised the government for ‘failing the most vulnerable’.
 
On the 1st April 2009 in the House of Commons, in response to criticisms from MPs about the review’s numerous delays, the health minister Phil Hope said:
“I am pleased to be able to tell the House that the antipsychotics review will be completed shortly: that is, in May this year.”
 
Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said:
“The government has not recognised the urgency of halting the misuse of antipsychotic drugs. A Spring 2008 parliamentary report found that the over-prescription of this ‘chemical cosh’ medication could mean 23,500 people dying prematurely; a January 2009 Alzheimer’s Research Trust study, published in Lancet Neurology, showed that antipsychotic drugs double the risk of death for many dementia patients. This is no time for prevarication.
 
“By breaking its promise to take swift and decisive action on the misuse of antipsychotic drugs the government is failing the most vulnerable people in our society. 700,000 people in the UK live with dementia, and there are no easy solutions to this crisis. Much more research is needed into safer, more effective treatments for this savage condition.”
 

 

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