Concern at doping of erratic elderly

The Press (New Zealand)
Concern is growing about the doping of elderly rest home residents with anti-psychotic drugs.
British research shows the practice – soon to be the subject of a New Zealand study – can result in premature death.
Researchers from King’s College in Britain compared the life expectancy of people with dementia and prescribed anti-psychotic medication [...]

Stop drugging dementia patients, urges report

Telegraph
Ministers should step in to stop inappropriate prescriptions of powerful antipsychotic drugs for Alzheimer’s patients, an influential group of MPs [Members of Parliament] said today.
Up to 105,000 people with dementia in Britain are wrongly being treated with the drugs, which are used to control behavioural symptoms such as aggression, they claim. Research has shown that [...]

Members of Parliament urge cut in dementia drug use

BBC News
MPs have urged the government to stop the “dangerous over-prescribing” of antipsychotic drugs to people in care homes with dementia.
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia said the drugs should only be used as a last resort.
Research published earlier this month said the drugs had no benefits, and could even worsen patients’ condition.
Alzheimer’s groups [...]

New Jersey’s Attorney General And Antipsychotics

Pharmalot.com
By Ed Silverman
Earlier this year, we noted that New Jersey’s Medicaid program spent more than $73 million on several antipsychotic meds for children less than 18 years old between 2000 and 2007, according to state records, even though the drugs weren’t approved by the FDA for treating kids. And a state official acknowledges the drugs [...]

UC to keep closer eye on prof’s income

Cincinnati Enquirer
BY CLIFF PEALE
The University of Cincinnati will increase scrutiny on a psychiatry professor for not reporting all of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate research money she received from a pharmaceutical giant during the last decade.
Melissa DelBello now has to review all of of her interactions with companies with her department chairman, [...]

‘Lethal’ drugs given for dementia

The Sunday Times
By Claire Newell and Steven Swinford
WHEN David Ramsay, a former senior consultant at Guy’s hospital in London, was diagnosed with dementia in 1998, his wife fought for three years to have him taken into full-time care.
But just months after winning her battle, David’s neck twisted by 90 degrees, leaving his chin permanently fixed [...]

Antipsychotic Drugs Increase Risk Of Developing Pneumonia In Elderly, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily
Elderly patients who use antipsychotic drugs have a 60 percent increased risk of developing pneumonia compared to non-users. This risk is highest in the first week following prescription and decreases gradually thereafter. Antipsychotic drugs are frequently used in elderly patients for the treatment of psychosis and behavioral problems associated with dementia and delirium. This study [...]

The Atypical Antipsychotic War

Psych Central
by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
Robert Farley of the St. Petersburg Times had an excellent in-depth piece about the war to increase prescriptions of atypical antipsychotics in America. I say “war,” because it really seems like there was a concerted, although perhaps not coordinated, effort to change the thinking about the best course of treatment [...]

Drug research: To test or to tout?

St. Petersburg Times
By Robert Farley, Times Staff Writer
In the mental institution in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched is obsessed with keeping order on the ward. She dispenses pills that sedate the residents into near zombies.
The novel was published in the 1960s, when Haldol and Thorazine were the drugs of choice to fight [...]

3,000 children were given unlicensed anti-psychotic drugs despite safety fears

The Times
Ben Quinn
The number of British children being given controversial anti-psychotic drugs has increased sharply, according to research.
As many as 3,000 children were administered the unlicensed drugs between 1996 and 2005, despite concerns from experts that they could cause long-term harm and even death.
Doctors gave out twice as many prescriptions for the [...]