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By EWAN FLETCHER -




Health risk: Those who had been given the medication were nearly twice as likely to die than those who were not prescribed it (Posed by model)







The controversial drugs, which are often used to sedate patients, have been described as a "liquid cosh" by one expert and the study has provoked a call for stricter limitations on their use.

Professor Clive Ballard from King's College, London, investigated the effects of anti-psychotic medication, which is given to nearly half of dementia patients in care homes at an annual cost of £80million.

He found that those who had been given it were nearly twice as likely, over a four-year period, to die than those who were not prescribed it.

Professor Ballard said: "People who weren't taking the anti-psychotic drugs had a 62 per cent chance of being alive by the end of the study while the people who were taking the drugs had only a 36 per cent chance of being alive.

"For the vast majority of people there are no benefits, and considerable harm, from using these drugs. There were clearly deteriorations in some of the core symptoms, particularly their ability to communicate effectively."

Many elderly people only mildly affected by dementia but prescribed anti-psychotic drugs are reduced to a "zombified" state by them, says the Alzheimer's Society, which has demanded an end to their blanket use.

The study is featured in a Panorama investigation to be shown on BBC1 tomorrow.

It tells the story of Cheryl Byrne, who spent the past three years battling to have her father, Eric Hollingworth, taken off anti-psychotics.

Mr Hollingworth, who died recently aged 81, was diagnosed with dementia in 2003 and from the outset was prescribed anti-psychotics.

Upset by the rapid deterioration in his health, Cheryl resorted to secretly filming his condition.

The footage shows her father slumped in a chair looking, as she describes, "like a zombie".

He doesn't utter a word and gets up and down from his chair 17 times in ten minutes.

Mrs Byrne, a retired bank worker, said: "I never thought he was the same again after he'd been prescribed those drugs. Something was lost. They robbed him, physically and mentally, of what capacity he did have."

Mr Hollingworth was given a cocktail of drugs after barricading himself in a ward.

Last night Tim Kendall, deputy director of research at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: "I can't see the justification for this wide range of drugs. It is a liquid cosh."

"I can't see the justification for this wide range of drugs. It is a liquid cosh."

Alzheimer's Society: Charity condemns costly and dangerous prescribing of anti-psychotic drugs

The NHS is wasting as much as 80 million pounds on prescribing unnecessary sedative drug treatments to people with dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Society. Over 100,000 people with dementia are currently being prescribed antipsychotic drugs which research shows have minimal benefit and dangerous side effects.

The charity has called for an end to the widespread drug abuse of people with dementia following a BBC Panorama investigation. The first All Party Parliamentary Group for Dementia has announced an inquiry into the overuse of anti-psychotic medication for the care of people with dementia.

The Alzheimer’s Society has argued that money wasted on sedative drugs should be spent on training care home staff to deliver good quality dementia care.

Neil Hunt, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Society, says,

‘Today is D-Day for dangerous drug prescribing. Sedating a person with dementia should be a last resort but too often doctors are turning to the medicine cabinet without considering the alternatives. Today Panorama is shining a light on the widespread drug abuse of people with dementia, which has been hidden away for too long. The first parliamentary inquiry into the practice is also an important step to uncovering the true scale of the problem, and we look forward to its findings.

‘Over 100,000 people are being prescribed these drug treatments that leave people with dementia in a zombie like state, robbed of their quality of life. Research shows that anti-psychotics have minimal benefit and drastically increase the risk of death and stroke. It is absurd that we are wasting millions of pounds prescribing these drugs when this money would be much better spent training health professionals in dementia care.

‘Dementia isn’t only about memory loss; more than half of all people with dementia experience behavioural symptoms as part of their condition. Basic dementia training can help staff deal with these symptoms and has been shown to reduce the use of antipsychotics drugs by 50 per cent. This lazy and costly prescribing must stop.’

The Alzheimer’s Society is campaigning against the overuse of anti-psychotic drug treatments as part of its putting care right campaign. Last week, it released a new report highlighted the huge variation in the standard of care that people with dementia receive in care homes and called for mandatory training for all care home staff. Guidelines recommend that people with dementia should only be prescribed sedatives as a last resort, when their symptoms are very severe.

Ends

Notes to editors:

165 participants with Alzheimer’s disease living in nursing homes in Oxfordshire, Newcastle, Edinburgh and London, who had been taking neuroleptic drugs for at least 3 months, took part in a long-term randomized double-blind placebo controlled neuroleptic withdrawal trial.The neuroleptics in the study were thioridazine (Melleril), chlorpromazine (Largactil), haloperidol (Serenace), trifluoperazine (Stelazine) and risperidone (Risperdal). Patients continued to take their prescribed neuroleptic drug for 12 months or took a matched placebo.

Additional follow up was completed a minimum of 12 months after initial enrolment (range 24-54 months) to determine the impact of continuing or discontinuing neuroleptics on mortality. The differences in survival were particularly striking at 24 months (78% v 55%), 36 months (62% v 35%) and 42 months (60% v 25%) The research findings are due to be published in 2008

People with dementia experience behavioural symptoms for a number of reasons: maybe as a result of physical discomfort, being unable to understand the world around them, or by damage to the brain that regulates behaviour.

Those with mild to moderate non-cognitive symptoms should not be prescribed antipsychotic drugs due to dangerous side-effects.

People with Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, mixed dementias or dementia with Lewy bodies with severe non-cognitive symptoms (psychosis and/or agitated behaviour causing significant distress) may be offered treatment with an antipsychotic drug provided certain conditions have been met.

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