NYT: Doctors Say Medication Is Overused in Dementia


	NYT: Doctors Say Medication Is Overused in Dementia

Lexica

6-24-2008 7:04 PM

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health, medicine, research, aging

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/c4782562-aac5-4a01-8376-27fb7d1dc494/7FC045E0-BE57-466D-9DFA-057D588BB671/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?ei=5087&em=&en=66e6d3978799d897&ex=1214452800&pagewanted=all" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?ei=5087&em=&en=66e6d3978799d897&ex=1214452800&pagewanted=all" style="font-size: 11px;">www.nytimes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?ei=5087&em=&en=66e6d3978799d897&ex=1214452800&pagewanted=all"><P>Ramona Lamascola thought she was losing her 88-year-old mother to <A title="In-depth reference and news articles about Dementia." href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/dementia/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier">dementia</A>. Instead, she was losing her to overmedication.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?ei=5087&em=&en=66e6d3978799d897&ex=1214452800&pagewanted=all"><P>Theresa Lamascola was moved to a nursing home to get these problems under control. But things only got worse. “My mother was screaming and out of it, <A title="In-depth reference and news articles about Drooling." href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/drooling/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier">drooling</A> on herself and twitching,” said Ms. Lamascola, a pediatric nurse. The psychiatrist in the nursing home stopped the Risperdal, which can cause twitching and vocal tics, and prescribed a <A title="Recent and archival health news about sedatives." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/sedatives/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">sedative</A> and two other antipsychotics.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?ei=5087&em=&en=66e6d3978799d897&ex=1214452800&pagewanted=all"><P>Not until yet another doctor took Mrs. Lamascola off the drugs did she begin to improve.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?ei=5087&em=&en=66e6d3978799d897&ex=1214452800&pagewanted=all"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.nytimes.com/img/9C3868EA-F9B8-4D17-BF74-F9B6D04951E2" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?ei=5087&em=&en=66e6d3978799d897&ex=1214452800&pagewanted=all"><P>The increases continue despite a drumbeat of bad publicity.  A 2006 study of <A title="In-depth reference and news articles about Alzheimer's Disease." href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/alzheimers-disease/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier">Alzheimer’s</A> patients found that for most patients, antipsychotics provided no significant improvement over placebos in treating aggression and delusions.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?ei=5087&em=&en=66e6d3978799d897&ex=1214452800&pagewanted=all"><P>Other experts cite a lack of research backing these drugs for behavioral problems.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?ei=5087&em=&en=66e6d3978799d897&ex=1214452800&pagewanted=all">simply paying attention to a nursing home patient can ease dementia symptoms</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/7FC045E0-BE57-466D-9DFA-057D588BB671/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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