By Jane Collingwood
Too many people with dementia are being prescribed dangerous anti-psychotic drugs, it was alleged yesterday.
A new department of health action plan seeks to help doctors reduce prescribing levels.
Care Services Minister Phil Hope announced the plan yesterday, saying that too many patients are being routinely prescribed antipsychotic drugs for aggression and agitation.
According to the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), people with dementia should only be given antipsychotics when the person is a risk to themselves or others.
The action plan has been developed following an independent review by Professor Sube Banerjee of King’s College London, UK.
Professor Banerjee says: "Antipsychotics are used too often in dementia; up to two thirds of the estimated 180,000 people with dementia receiving these are prescribed them unnecessarily.
"This review identifies the potential risks and benefits of these medications in dementia and presents actions that we can take to address this problem."
Phil Hope added: "It is unacceptable that antipsychotic drugs are routinely prescribed to people with dementia. More than half of people with dementia will experience agitation or aggression at some point, but NICE guidance is clear – antipsychotics should only be given when this is really necessary.
"Excellent examples of practice do exist, but our action plan will help make sure this is the norm, not the exception."
The plan includes a new National Clinical Director for Dementia, greater access to psychological therapies, local targets, better regulation, training in collaboration with medical colleges, and guidance on antipsychotics for carers.
Neil Hunt, of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: "The scandalous over prescription of antipsychotic drugs leads to an estimated 1,800 deaths a year, it must end."
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