Tune Out, Turn Off - Typical and Atypical Antipsychotic Drugs
In later stages of Alzheimer's and other dementias, patients often suffer from delusions, hallucinations, panic reactions, obsessive behaviors and a whole array of other symptoms. Anti-psychotic drugs are effective in controlling these. They "turn down the static" in the mind but may also produce disturbing side effects and a higher mortality rate in elderly dementia patients (compared to those not taking the drug). The question for me as a caregiver is "when do the benefits of these drugs outweigh the risks?" with the primary goal being to maximize the comfort of the patient. This is a difficult decision but at some point you realize that the time has come. That time came today for me and BJ. ~Jack
The Department of Justice alleges that Johnson Johnson, the manufacturers of the anti psychotic drug Respirdol®, paid tens of millions of dollars in kickback money to a pharmacy supplying nursing homes. The assumption is that many elderly patients may have inappropriately received this powerful drug and suffered as a result - with Medicare footing the bill. Article here »
