Alzheimer’s patients are dying earlier because of prescribed sedatives

Results from a five-year project, funded by the Alzheimer’s Research Trust (UK), found that prescribed sedatives were linked with a significant increase in long-term mortality - with patients dying on average six months earlier.

... the sedatives, known as neuroleptics, were associated with a significant deterioration in verbal fluency and cognitive function, and that neuroleptic treatment had no benefit to patients with the mildest symptoms.

Significantly, up to 45% of people with Alzheimer’s disease residing in nursing homes are prescribed neuroleptics as a treatment for behavioral symptoms such as aggression.

Professor Clive Ballard, Professor of Age Related Disorders at King’s College London, and lead researcher on the project, said:

"It is very clear that even over a six month period of treatment, there is no benefit of neuroleptics in treating the behavior in people with Alzheimer’s disease when the symptoms are mild – specifically when a measure of behavioural disturbance known as the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Score is equal to or less than 14. For people with more severe behavioral symptoms, balancing the potential benefits against increased mortality and other adverse events is more difficult, but this study provides an important evidence base to inform this decision-making process."

With the parents of baby boomers already in the high risk years and boomers themselves beginning to near them, it is extremely important for those in middle age to pay attention to developments in Alzheimer's and dementia treatment and research.

Source: Alzheimer’s Research Trust