Antipsychotic drugs elevate Alzheimer’s patients' risk of dying

New York, United States, January 9:Antipsychotic drugs commonly prescribed to Alzheimer’s patients may significantly raise patient's chance of dying within a few years, suggests a new research.

The novel study, funded by the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, says the antipsychotic medication prescribed to treat aggression in older Alzheimer's patients, nearly doubles their risk of death over three years.

"For the vast majority of Alzheimer's patients, taking these drugs is probably not a worthwhile risk," said lead author of the study, Clive Ballard, of the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases at King's College London.

"Would I want to take a drug that slightly reduced my aggression but doubled my risk of dying? I'm not sure I would," Ballard said.

To reach their findings, Ballard and colleagues followed 165 Alzheimer's patients aged 67 to 100 years, with moderate to severe condition from 2001 to 2004 in Britain.

Participants in care homes were receiving antipsychotic medications. Of the study subjects, 83 were told to continue their antipsychotic treatment and the remaining 82 were switched to oral placebos.

Researchers found that the risk of death for patients, who continued taking antipsychotic treatment significantly elevated during the course of the study.

After one year, slightly more people in the antipsychotic group had died but after 24 months, survival in the placebo group was 71 percent compared to 46 percent among the people on the drugs.

After three years, 30 percent of patients treated with anti-psychotics were alive compared with 59 percent on the dummy drug.

“The results further highlight the need to seek less harmful alternatives for the long-term treatment of behavioural symptoms in Alzheimer’s patients,” Ballard said. “At the moment, there is still a limited place for antipsychotics in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, particularly severe aggression, but the serious concerns of the drugs shown by our research emphasise the urgent need to put an end to unnecessary and prolonged prescribing”.

Alzheimer's disease (AD), which causes senility and can lead to death, is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the development of unusual clumps of proteins called amyloid plaques and nerve cell tangles that hinder messages being processed by the brain. AD that destroys patients' memories and capacity for speech affects an estimated 5.2 million Americans.

Alzheimer's affects almost half of all patients with dementia. The most striking early symptom of Alzheimer’s is loss of short term memory. As the disorder progresses, cognitive injury extends to the domains of language (aphasia), skilled movements (apraxia), recognition (agnosia), and those functions (such as decision-making and planning) closely related to the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.

Researchers have been trying to formulate various methods to prevent dementia, which is common among the elderly. But the various medications available do not promise a full cure. Although, they help in ameliorating memory, but effectual treatment can be seen only in a handful of patients.

Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said, “The findings of this research are a real wake-up call and underline the danger of prescribing antipsychotics long-term for anything other than exceptional circumstances…. The study also highlights the urgent need to develop better treatments as Alzheimer’s patients have few options available to them.”

Findings of the latest research are published in Lancet Neurology on Jan.9.