UK AD patients face sedative death risk

The Alzheimer's Research Trust, a leading UK-based research charity for dementia, has found that patients face double the risk of dying when prescribed a class of sedatives. Up to 45% patients in UK nursing homes with Alzheimer's disease are believed to be using neuroleptic drugs, which are prescribed as a treatment for behavioral symptoms, such as aggression, according to a report in The Guardian newspaper.

The ART issued a statement denouncing the practice of giving neuroleptics to AD sufferers as a "scandal:" the drugs are only licensed in the UK for use in cases of schizophrenia. Patients with milder symptoms receive "little benefit" from the drugs, the group argues.

The study, titled, Neuroleptics: do they accelerate cognitive decline and exacerbate neuronal loss? was funded by the ART and carried out by researchers at King's College London, UK, over a five-year period starting in 2001. The randomized double-blind placebo-controlled neuroleptic withdrawal trial involved 164 patients at nursing homes across the UK. The drugs examined were: thioridazine; chlorpromazine; haloperidol; trifluoperazone; and risperidone. At 42 months, survival rates for neuroleptic users was 25%, compared with 60% for placebo.