SAN JOSE: The effect of antipsychotics on mortality in elderly patients with dementia may be higher than previously reported, researchers say.
Recognition has grown over the past ten years of the adverse events — including pneumonia, cardiac failure and cerebrovascular disorders — associated with the treatment of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.
The latest study sought to identify the absolute increase in risk of death and the number needed to harm (NNH; a metric looking at the number of patients who receive a treatment that would be associated with one death) with these agents by comparing the outcomes of using various antipsychotics with no treatment or alternative psychotropics…