Alzheimer's Risk

There is a growing concern that too many Alzheimer's patients are being given dangerous medicines which as a result, are hastening their death.

For patients with Alzheimer's disease, and their caretakers, one of the most difficult aspects to deal with is the agitation that can occur. "The challenge is many people who are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the course of their illness have agitation or they get angry they can even become violent. They can scream, they can be up during the night, " says Dr. Gunnar Gouras, a neurologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center.

 Faythe Mais Weaver cares for her mother Wyrelena. "She's had few signs of agitation and irritability, and we've tried some of the medications. And on days when she'sreally agitated, we just take her for long, long walks a lot, " says Faythe. Dr. Gouras says, "It can be really difficult for caregivers and you search for medications to try to calm them down and the classic group of medications for agitation are this class called neuroleptics."

But now, a report by British Alzheimer's researchers has found that those neuroleptics--antipsychotic medicines which act as sedatives--are causing many Alzheimer's patients to die earlier. These are drugs like haldol, risperadol, and chlorpromazine. Overall, the patients prescribed neuroleptics were twice as likely to die as those not on them--on average, six months earlier.

 It's another difficult event on the road to treating Alzheimer's Lou-Ellen Barkan, President and CEO of the New York City chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, says, "We're searching for preventive medicine, we're searching for treatments and we're searching for cures. And we applaud the scientists that are doing this and we recognize that in the context of all this work and in the war against Alzheimer's there's going to be a lot of failures."

It has already been established that these medicines, especially respirdal and zyprexa increase the risk of stroke and death in these patients. Dr. Gouras says, "In my practice because of these reports in the last few years of the potential detrimental effects of neuroleptics and sedatives%u2014I%u2019ve really cut back and am really careful when I give them. I give them to very few patients."

 The problem is, what are the other options? It's a frustration for Faythe. "On my worst days, I really do wish there were a magic pill that would make things better. But I just take a lot of deep breaths and say we'll get through this, this is a part of the diseases," says Faythe.

And the Alzheimer's society in Britain says, that these drugs must be a last resort, only used when all other methods have failed to alleviate the most distressing symptoms of dementia. You should talk with your loved one's physician about the medications he or she is on and whether the drugs are really necessary.

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