Seroquel Lawyers
Widely prescribed anti-psychotic drugs do not help most Alzheimer's patients with delusions and aggression and are not worth the risk of sudden death and other side effects, the first major study on sufferers outside nursing homes concludes.
The finding could increase the burden on families struggling to care for relatives with the mind-robbing disease at home.
"These medications are not the answer," said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which paid for the study. He said better medications are at least several years away.
Three-fourths of the 4.5 million Americans with Alzheimer's disease develop aggression , hallucinations or delusions , which can lead them to lash out at caregivers or harm themselves. This behavior is the most common reason families put people with Alzheimer's in a nursing home.
The study tested Zyprexa , Risperdal and Seroquel — newer drugs developed for schizophrenia . Doctors are free to prescribe them for any use. However, the drugs carry a strong warning that they increase the risk of death for elderly people with dementia-related psychotic symptoms , mainly because of heart problems and pneumonia , and that they are not approved for such patients.
Yet roughly one-quarter of nursing home patients are on these drugs, and at least that many patients at home have used them, mainly because there are no great alternatives and there was some evidence they might help a little, experts say.
The study tested the drugs on 421 patients at 42 medical centers who needed considerable care but were living in their own home, a relative's or an assisted-living facility. The findings were reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine .
Each patient got one of the drugs or a dummy pill, without knowing what they received. The doctor could raise the dose if needed. Patients were followed for nine months, longer than in most prior tests.
About four in five patients stopped taking their pills early — on average, within five to eight weeks — because the medications were ineffectiven or had side effects that included grogginess, worsening confusion, weight gain, and Parkinson's-like symptoms such as rigidity and trouble walking.
Five deaths were reported among the patients on the medication, versus two among those in the placebo group. But researchers said the difference could be a matter of chance. The causes of death were not disclosed.
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