LONDON, Dec. 11, 2000 (UPI) - Thousands of elderly people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and dementia in Britain are being prescribed drugs that could be making their symptoms worse, The London Telegraph reported Monday.
An estimated 30,000 people each year, most of them living in residential and nursing homes, are being given the drugs inappropriately, according to researchers cited in the newspaper report.
They said neuroleptics, also called major tranquilizers, are too often used instead of nursing care and that vulnerable patients are too often inadequately monitored.
"There is a problem that the drugs are used as a substitute for good, practical care management," said Dr. Clive Ballard of the Institute for the Health of the Elderly at Newcastle General Study. "There needs to be investment in the proper training of staff."
Dr. Ballard, who led the study, and his colleagues found that those taking the drugs suffered significantly reduced well-being, spent more time socially withdrawn and less time engaged in helpful activities.
In the study, 209 elderly people with dementia living in four residential and two nursing homes in Newcastle were identified. A third of these was not taking drugs. In a rating of quality of life, 11 percent had "ill-being," 24 percent had poor well-being and 64 percent had fair or good well-being. Only a small number of people had severe behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, but most were receiving drugs. Dr. Ballard found that those taking neuroleptics were "particularly at risk of ill-being."
He is about to begin a five-year study of the effect of discontinuing a neuroleptic drug in people with dementia.
Feb. 1, 2006 (Bloomberg) -- Drugs commonly used in elderly patients to treat bowel disorders, incontinence and Parkinson's disease may lead to mild mental impairment, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal.
About 10 percent of the 372 people studied took these anticholinergic drugs over an extended period, said Karen Ritchie, research director at the Hopital La Colombiere in Montpellier, France. Drug users had worse cognitive performance than non-users, and 80 percent were impaired mentally compared with 35 percent of non-users, Ritchie found.
"Anticholinergic drugs remained the most highly significant predictor of this condition," Ritchie said in the study. "Doctors should assess current use of anticholinergic drugs in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment before considering treatment for dementia."
The drugs are commonly used in elderly patients to treat illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, urinary incontinence, and Parkinson's disease. Users of these drugs had "significant" deficits in cognitive functioning, Ritchie said. There wasn't an increased risk of developing dementia, she said.
Anticholinergic drugs include antidepressants, painkillers and therapies for epilepsy, rheumatism, heart disease, incontinence, asthma and Parkinson's disease. They may affect older people's reaction time, response time, ability to remember faces and conversations, language and visual perception of space, the researchers showed.
In U.S. nursing homes more than 30 percent of elderly residents take more than two anticholinergic drugs, and 5 percent take more than five, the researchers said. About 51 percent of the general population use the medicines, they said. The therapies may affect the brains of the elderly more because they are absorbed quicker, excreted slower and may interact with other drugs.
