Lancet study gives further warning about the use of antipsychotics in the treatment of Alzheimer's

The Lancet has published a UK study showing that the use of antipsychotics in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease could double the  risk of long-term death.

The three-year study involved 165 AD patients living in care homes in  Oxfordshire, Tyneside, London and Edinburgh, who were randomized to  receive either the antipsychotics thioridazine, chlorpromazine,  haloperidol, triflouoperazine or respiridone, or placebo.

After two years, just 46% of patients in the antipsychotic group were  alive, compared with 71% in the control arm. After three years, survival  fell to 30% in the active cohort, versus 59% on placebo.