For-Profit Medicine Incentivizes Overmedicating Our Elderly
From NBC: According to human rights investigators, anti-psychotic drugs are often administered to nursing home residents to address behavioral issues. Our nation's lack of funding...
Drugs and Dementia
This week, JAMA Internal Medicine published online an interesting paper, “Cumulative Use of Strong Anticholinergics and Incident Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study.” They found that exposure to anticholinergic drugs significantly increased the risk of developing dementia. This study has important implications for those who prescribe and take psychiatric drugs.
Depression Linked to Dementia in Later Life
A retrospective study of 13,535 long-term Kaiser Permanente members found that depressive symptoms in mid-life (1964-1973 for this cohort) were associated with a 20%...
Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Keep Pushing To Reduce Antipsychotic Use In Elderly
-"The push for long-term care facilities to abandon the use of off-label use of antipsychotic medications for residents with dementia will intensify over the next two years."
“Does Air Pollution Cause Dementia?”
-Mother Jones examines the growing body of research implicating air pollution in dementia.
First Aid for Emotional Trauma
Handout by Will Hall, offered on the Icarus Project website, on what emotional trauma is and how to work to heal it.
Go to "First...
Antipsychotics Linked to Cognitive & Memory Impairments
Finnish reseachers report in Schizophrenia Research that antipsychotic use is associated with cognitive and memory impairments. The University of Oulu team studied forty people...
“‘They’re Waking Up’: Reducing Drugs for Dementia Patients Yields Dramatic Results”
Canada's Global News reports that "A couple of years after a national initiative began to reduce the use of anti-psychotic medication, some people are...
Dementia Screening Tools Often Misdiagnose Patients
A new study has found that the three most commonly-used dementia screening measures often misdiagnose patients.
Benzodiazepine Use of 50% of Elderly Patients is Not Monitored
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) publication Psychiatric News has released an article about the recent British Medical Journal study finding strong links between long-term...
Antipsychotics Increase Mortality Risk in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease
A new study in JAMA Neurology finds that the use of antipsychotic drugs more than doubled the risk of death in patients with Parkinson’s...
Veterans with both PTSD and Dementia More Likely to be Prescribed Antipsychotics
Researchers found that veterans with both conditions had higher odds of being prescribed second-generation antipsychotics than those presenting with just PTSD.
Common Alzheimer’s Drug Linked to Potentially Life-threatening Conditions
A popular Alzheimer's and dementia drug has been linked to two potentially fatal conditions.
“Coming Out of the Fog”
"For the past eight years, Vicki Dyer has been the program director of the dementia ward at Lakewood, a continuing care centre in Waterville, Me.,...
Pain Meds Reduce Dementia Symptoms
British researchers find that a 10% increase in pain medication resulted in a dramatic reduction in the use of antipsychotic and other medications. “When...
Rampant Prescription Errors in CA Nursing Homes
Recent investigations by the California Department of Public Health found that in 18 of 31 nursing homes in San Francisco (plus one outside of...
Discontinuing Psychotropics Reduces Falls in Elderly
Australian researchers look at the literature on the effect of psychotropics on falls in the elderly; largest effect of any randomized trial was achieved...
Patients on Antipsychotics at High Risk for Cardiovascular Issues, Study Finds
Antipsychotics present a known risk for major side effects. A new study suggests that certain antipsychotics may present a greater risk for cardiovascular disease than others.
Labels Initiates Core Social Support, Lose Peripheral Ties
Article Abstract:
Although research supports the stigma and labeling perspective, empirical evidence also indicates that a social safety net remains intact for those with mental...
Dubious Amyloid Theories of Alzheimer’s and Drug Treatments Keep Getting Hyped
-Pharmaceutical policy researcher Alan Cassels critically reviews a spate of effusive news coverage about a tiny, experimental study of a drug treatment for Alzheimer's.
Nonclinical Factors are Associated with Long-Term Benzodiazepine Use in Older Adults
White race and size of initial prescription, along with poor sleep quality, are associated with long-term benzodiazepine use in older adults.
Psychotropics Accelerate Cognitive and Functional Decline
Researchers at Johns Hopkins, The Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School, Duke and others found in a study of 230 Alzheimer's patients tracked over four...
Evidence Strengthening that Common Benzodiazepine Sedatives May Cause Dementia
A meta-analysis of studies found that the risk of dementia increased 22% for every additional twenty daily doses of benzodiazepine medications annually.
Lower Education Linked to Higher Antipsychotic Use in Swedish Elderly
Elderly people in Sweden are five times more likely to be taking antipsychotics if they have a diagnosis of dementia, according to research published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. And among those people with dementia, the lower their education the higher the likelihood they’re taking antipsychotics.
Nursing Homes Shift Tactics on Dementia
As part of a series on the inappropriate use of antipsychotics in nursing homes, the Boston Globe explores alternative approaches, such as llama therapy,...
