News and Politics | January 08, 2009 | 7 comments

Dementia drug death risk warning

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7817583.stm

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DeliaTheArtist
"Experts have condemned the commonplace prescribing of sedatives to people in the UK with dementia.

It comes as a three-year study published in The Lancet Neurology reports a doubling of the risk of early death in those on the drugs long-term.

As many as 100,000 people in UK care homes with dementia are routinely prescribed anti-psychotic drugs for aggressiveness or agitation.

There was a significant increase in risk of death for patients who continued taking anti-psychotics during the course of the study.

After two years, 46% of patients treated with anti-psychotics were alive compared with 71% on the placebo.

Three years after the start of the study, fewer than a third of people on anti-psychotics were alive compared to nearly two-thirds taking the placebo."

So what's better: Crazy or Dead?
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7 comments // Dementia drug death risk warning

  • SunGodRa
  • jonny2times
    • 0
      jonny2times  

    • imo...

      if i had dementia and i had a snub-nose .38 or a bottle of pills.

      id probably pick the .38

      and thats from both perspectives, me at this point looking into a hypothetical future at a demented elderly me, and the choice the old me would make.

      if i dont know the names of the people i love and theres logic in nothing, id eat a bullet before those pills to make me not care that ive lost what once made me, well... me.

      but i would never make my personal opinion on what i would want for myself policy for other people on such subjects, ever

    • 3 years ago
  • joshuaheller
  • unimatrix0
  • mhembree09
    • 0
      mhembree09  

    • you don't know if it is better to be alive or psychotic.

      i can't imagine that life, but i think its possible i'd choose a shorter life of sanity.

    • 3 years ago
  • HappyAlex
    • 0
      HappyAlex  

    • Dead in my opinion. Crazy is like another form of pain. Are people in pain perscribed medication? Yes they are. Do I agree? Not really. I wish there was another way, but if it helps then it helps. (This obviously shows that the people on the placebo did have a mental problem and their doctors or who ever should have changed their perscription.) When you have a severe case of Dementia its basically like dying just coming at you slower (or faster in some cases). Again dead in my opinion because suffering is worse then death.

    • 3 years ago
  • judiestar
    • 0
      judiestar  

    • Better for whom? Better for the people? Crazy. Better for the nursing home workers? Dead. Come on, we all know that nursing home workers lose their souls after a short period of time. They dont have time to deal with the "crazies".

    • 3 years ago
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