Older adults who take antipsychotic drugs have an increased risk of developing pneumonia, particularly during the first week after starting treatment, Dutch researchers at the University Medical Center-Utrecht report. With pneumonia an important cause of death in seniors, CAREGivers should be aware of the potential problems clients taking antipsychotic drugs might face.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and recapped on the university’s Web site (http://www.umcutrecht.nl/research/news/2008/04/some-drugs-for-elderly-lead-to-pneumonia.htm), found that the chance of getting pneumonia was 4.5 times greater the week after patients started treatment than for those in the control group.
Clinical geriatrician Dr. Rob van Marum analyzed studied information on nearly 23,000 older patients who had been prescribed antipsychotic drugs at least once. The researchers concluded that the likelihood of being hospitalized for pneumonia was 60 percent greater for subjects who were currently on antipsychotic drugs than for those who weren’t.
Doctors often prescribe these drugs for seniors who have behavior problems associated with delirium or dementia. Van Marum noted that antipsychotic drugs do not help in many cases, and he sees this as a chemical solution to a problem that should be dealt with through social interventions.
“We prescribe medicines that are not only relatively ineffective; they lead to an increase in deaths,” he said in a summary. “For every 10 to 20 patients who benefit from antipsychotics, the treatment results in one death. I would like doctors to take this more into consideration when they prescribe antipsychotic drugs.”
