Dementia drugs have 'modest impact'

A Government review has said that up to 150,000 people with dementia are being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs unnecessarily. It said that only around 36,000 of the 180,000 people on the drugs in the UK actually get any benefit from them, and overprescribing of the drugs is linked to an extra 1,800 deaths a year among elderly people. Care services minister Phil Hope promised to crack down on the practice, including appointing a new national clinical director for dementia. He also promised measures to ensure more use of psychological therapies rather than relying on drugs. Anti-psychotic medicines are licensed to treat people with schizophrenia and are used off-licence for dementia patients in care homes and hospitals. In his review, Sube Banerjee, professor of mental health and ageing at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, said the rate of use of anti-psychotic drugs could be cut to one third of its current level with appropriate action. He said this could be done safely over three years. Jeremy Wright, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia, called for more training to be given to care home staff and for greater involvement of the patient's family and friends over the decision on whether to prescribe. He said: "We need to give people other ways of avoiding the problem and that means making sure staff who work in care homes are properly trained in dementia. "We need to involve family members and friends and loved ones much more in the decision to prescribe and the decision to keep prescribing these drugs."

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ITN | November 12, 2009

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