Tuesday, January 16, 2007

A significant study on neuroleptic drugs from NEJM

Here is a recent New England Journal of Medicine article on neuroleptics and Alzheimer's with respect to aggressive tendencies."A 42-site, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 421 outpatients with Alzheimer's disease and psychosis, aggression, or agitation " http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/355/15/1525

The conclusion in the abstract : ' *Adverse effects offset advantages in the efficacy of atypical antipsychotic drugs for the treatment of psychosis, aggression, or agitation ' in this population of Alzheimers persons. *Adverse effects like sleepiness, cognitive dulling, frontal lobe atrophy, learning disabilities, tremors, akathisia and drug- induced dementia- to name a few. Note that this is a 42 WEEK study in comparison to many shorter studies that have been done to get FDA approval for using neuroleptics on various populations.

When will a long term study like this be done to determine whether neuroleptics are safe or harmful to the brains of pre- teen children, who are taking neuroleptics in exponentially increasing numbers for a variety of behaviour disorders ?

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