Mental Health Blogs

Bloomberg today reports on the British government taking steps to drastically reduce the use of antipsychotics in treating elders with dementia. A recent report estimated that upwards of 1,800 Brits die each year after getting the drugs for dementia and another 1,620 suffer strokes. Keep in mind that all that dementia-Rxing would be off-label bother in the UK and USA.

“About 180,000 elderly people with dementia in the U.K. are given the antipsychotic drugs each year, and just 20 percent improve because of the treatment, Banerjee said at a press conference in London. As many as two-thirds of the patients don’t derive any benefit from the pills, which boost the risk of early death and carry a range of side effects including sedation, stiff muscles, and trouble thinking and speaking clearly, the report found.

“‘We need to be sure that only the people who benefit from these drugs get them, and they get them at the lowest possible dose for the shortest period of time,’ Banerjee said. ‘It is clear that these medications are being prescribed to deal with behavior and psychological symptoms in dementia rather than just for psychosis,’ he wrote in the report.”

I bet it’s going to be really tough to turn that ship around. Here in the US about 25 percent to 30 percent of atypical sales are for off-label use in dementia even though the drugs carry black box warnings concerning their use in dementia.

I’m glad the UK has caught some sanity on this issue. I hope the US is next.

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