Dementia drug is far more dangerous than first thought

ANTIPSYCHOTIC drugs given to patients with dementia are far more dangerous than thought, a major study has found.

Doctors are already told to be careful in prescribing such drugs, which are known to raise risk of death and should only be prescribed when other medicines have failed.

Such drugs have been dubbed “the chemical cosh” with concerns about misuse in care homes owing to their heavy sedative effects.

A study of 174,000 people published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has found the medicine causes even more side effects than was thought. Taking the drugs for three months increased the risk of heart attack or failure by more than a quarter, doubled the risk of pneumonia and caused large rises in kidney problems and blood clots.

The past decade has seen repeated efforts to curb the use of the drugs, which are supposed to only be prescribed to dementia patients suffering from agitation or psychosis if other medicines have failed. Their use rose sharply during the pandemic, however, with a study in 2022 highlighting a 50 per cent increase in prescriptions of the drugs in care homes since 2018.

Experts called for more to be done to reduce the use of the drugs among the vulnerable.

The latest study examined data from older adults in England who were diagnosed with dementia between 1998 and 2018.

Some 35,339 people were prescribed antipsychotics during the study – 63 per cent of whom were women – and their medical records were compared to dementia patients who were not prescribed these drugs.

Academics from Manchester, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Dundee universities found that dementia patients who were current users of antipsychotic drugs had a twofold increased risk of developing pneumonia compared with those who were not taking the drugs.

Researchers also found that dementia patients who took antipsychotics had a 61 per cent increased risk of stroke and a 43 per cent elevated risk of breaking a bone.

They also found a 28 per cent increased risk of heart attack and a 27 per cent increased risk of heart failure.

Patients with dementia who were prescribed antipsychotics appeared to have a 72 per cent increased risk of kidney injury and 62 per cent increased risk of developing a type of blood clot called a venous thromboembolism.