Originally published October 21 2005
Antipsychotic medications can increase the risk of death
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Lon S. Schneider, M.D., M.S., and colleagues at the University of Southern California studied the effect of antipsychotic medications and found that they increased the risk of death for users.
Patients with dementia who took atypical antipsychotic drugs had a slightly increased risk of death compared to patients who took placebo, according to a meta-analysis published in the October 19 issue of JAMA.
A majority of elderly patients with dementia develop aggression, delusions, and other neuropsychiatric symptoms during their illness, according to background information in the article.
During the last decade, newer atypical antipsychotic drugs (i.e., risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, and aripiprazole, in order of introduction) have largely replaced the older conventional or first generation antipsychotic drugs (e.g., haloperidol and thioridazine) and have been considered preferred treatments for these behavioral disturbances associated with dementia.
Outcomes were assessed using standard methods to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and risk differences based on patients randomized and relative risks based on total exposure to treatment.
Sensitivity analyses did not show evidence for differential risks for individual drugs, severity, sample selection, or diagnosis.
The established risks for cerebrovascular adverse events together with the present observations suggest that antipsychotic drugs should be used with care in these patients," the authors write.
"The fact that excess deaths and cerebrovascular adverse events can be observed within 10 to 12 weeks of initiating medication, coupled with observations from individual clinical trials results that there is substantial improvement in both drug and placebo groups during the first 1 to 4 weeks of treatment, lead to the consideration that antipsychotic drugs should be prescribed and dosage adjusted with the expectation of clinical improvement within that time.
This effect may not be limited to atypical drugs as a class and may be associated with haloperidol and other drugs that have not been subjected to efficacy trials in elderly patients with dementia," the researchers conclude.
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