Nearly 2,000 elderly patients are killed each year by unnecessary anti-psychotic medication, report finds
By Owen Bowcott
guardian.co.uk,
12 November 2009
As many as many as 144,000 people suffering from dementia are being given anti-psychotic drugs unnecessarily, according to a review ordered by the Department of Health.
Excessive use of the medication causes an estimated 1,800 deaths and almost as many strokes among older people every year, the study revealed.
The care services minister, Phil Hope, accepted all the recommendations in the review and promised a fundamental change in the treatment of those suffering from dementia.
The numbers being given "chemical restraints" will be reduced, extra training will be given to nursing home staff, more psychological therapies are to be made available and a national clinical director for dementia will be appointed.
The author of the study, Sube Banerjee, professor of mental health and ageing at the institute of psychiatry at King's College London, said that as few as 36,000 patients were benefiting from the use of anti-psychotic drugs, but their use was widespread and usually unquestioned.
Anti-psychotic medicines are used to manage the behaviourial and psychological difficulties experienced by many dementia patients such as agitation, aggression, wandering, shouting, repeated questioning and sleep disturbance.
Abridged
SOURCE: The Guardian, UK
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Other countries who are doing the same thing to their seniors should take notice of this report. However, the sad thing is that other politicians would just call for another "Inquiry or Report" before they act.
It is a fact that many anti-psychotic drugs are used in nursing homes to keep the residents "restrained"; but the authorities just would not accept the findings from other countries. They got to have their own "Inquiry" ; the euphermism of passing the buck.
...................... Andrew
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