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Specialist Training Could Reduce Use of Anti-Psychotics by Half

in
Date published: 
Monday, September 8, 2008
News source: 
Caring Business
Region: 
United Kingdom

Scientists have reiterated advice that anti-psychotic drugs should not be given to people with dementia following research published in the British Medical Journal that found it tripled the risk of stroke.

 
It also found that all forms of anti-psychotics boost the risk in all patients.
 
Previous research suggested only some types of the drug increased the risk, particularly those for dementia.
 
Anti-psychotic drugs have been widely used to control symptoms of dementia such as aggression.
 
But Alzheimer's Society research has shown that specialist training could reduce antipsychotic use by 50% and save the UK £35 million a year, if it was mandatory.
 
Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society said that care home staff needed specialist dementia training to effectively care for people with dementia.
 
‘The over-prescription of anti-psychotics is a serious breach of human rights, these drugs should only be a last resort,’ he said.
 
Anti-psychotics fall into two types - newer and older.
 
Concerns were first raised about the older anti-psychotic drugs in 2002 and it led to recommendations that they should not be given to people with dementia.
 
This latest research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has confirmed the concerns for dementia patients.
 
The researchers repeated the recommendation that patients with dementia should not be prescribed these drugs.
 
But the study has also raised wider concerns.
 
They identified 6,700 patients from a GP database, all with an average age of 80, and concluded that there was more than a tripling of risk for dementia patients taking any sort of anti-psychotic drug.
 
Patients without dementia taking any sort of anti-psychotic had a 40% increase in risk.
 
Mr Hunt said that the Government’s forthcoming National Dementia Strategy would be a crucial opportunity stop the over-prescription of anti-psychotic drugs.

 

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