by M. L. Kiser

Created on: July 14, 2008

With Alzheimer's Disease escalating to more than 16 million victims in America alone; the search for a cure seems to have done more harm to many patients than good. Companies are often too quick to put a drug on the market without considering the consequences of its side effects.

Often we find out too late that drugs are doing more harm than good for a patient. Certainly, the bulk of the medical community doesn't bother to tell us about the damage caused by their drugs. Often we wait years to find that certain side effects could have been avoided, thanks to some researchers who are compelled to be truthful with people.

Recent research has discovered that many anti-depressant and anti-psychotic drugs given to Alzheimer's and Dementia patients can do more harm than good and can actually reduce or destroy the quality of life for many patients.

Anti-psychotic drugs are created for those patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorders who experience delusions or hallucinations. They are often given to Alzheimer's and Dementia patients because of their sedative effects.

Their use for Alzheimer and Dementia patients is not authorized by drug regulatory agencies; yet they are widely prescribed by doctors, especially in nursing homes. Critics of this use insist that it may be to simply to make life easier for the nursing home staff. It certainly does nothing for the patients other than to sedate them or make them worse, in the long term.

Noted Psychiatrist and Dementia researcher, Dr. Clive Ballard, Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College in London, UK has discovered that these drugs can do more harm than good for the patient. In fact, they may even cause patients to deteriorate even faster!

In a press release of 2-19-2005, Dr. Ballard and his researchers found that these drugs can actually cause more depression, even suicide in dementia patients to whom they are given, particularly in the early stages of treatment. They did a number of studies with over 200,000 patients taking Selective Serotonin reuptake Inhibitors or (SSRI's) and triyclic antidepressants. See Website article:
http://www.bmj.com/content/vol330/issue7488/ press_release.dtl

In older adults with Dementia and Alzheimer's, serious problems like hospital admission and even death can frequently occur after the short-term use of anti-psychotic drugs. Ref.
http://psychrights.org/Research/Digest/NLPs/neur oleptics.htm and

http://psychrights.org/Research/Digest/NLPs/NLPSi nElderlywDementia-rochon2008.pdf

Neuro-elyptics

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