According to the research released by the Alzheimer’s Research Trust in the UK, the improper use of tranquilizing medications called neuroleptics that control the behavior of patients with dementia in nursing homes is leading to the early death of many of those patients.
According to the BBC reports, a five-year study discovered that patients taking neuroleptics died an average of six months earlier than normal. It is known that patients suffering dementia who take these medications are three times more inclined to experience a stroke.
Neuroleptic medications include chlorpromazine, haloperidol, risperidone, thioridazine and trifluoperazine. Guidelines advocate prescribing these medications for patients who are seriously agitated or violent. However, the lead author of the study, Professor Clive Ballard of King’s College London, explained that the medications are used improperly in the majority of cases and cause more harm than good.
He and his team analyzed 165 Alzheimer’s disease patients at over one hundred nursing homes who were being prescribed neuroleptics. The scientists switched 50 per cent the patients to dummy (placebo) pills, whereas the other half kept taking neuroleptics medicines.
At 24 months, 78 per cent of the patients in the placebo group were still alive, in comparison to 55 per cent of those in the neuroleptic group. At 36 months, the survival rates were 62 per cent vs. 35 per cent and at 42 months, 60 per cent vs. 25 per cent, BBC News informed.
The results of the research were presented at the Alzheimer’s Research Trust conference in Edinburgh.
