Health
Safety of dementia drugs weighed
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted June 9, 2008
Older adults with dementia who receive short-term courses of antipsychotic medications are more likely to be hospitalized or die than those who do not take the drugs, according to a report in the May 26 Archives of Internal Medicine.
About 17% of individuals admitted to nursing homes are started on antipsychotic medications within 100 days.
The authors studied 20,682 older adults with dementia who lived in the community and 20,559 who lived in nursing homes. The researchers found that patients taking the drugs were two to almost four times more likely to be hospitalized or die within 30 days of starting treatment.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/06/09/hlbf0609.htm.
