Over the years the Mental Health Update blog has featured a number of posts about the damaging effects of antipsychotic drugs prescribed as a 'chemical cosh' for people with dementia and now the U.K. Government (probably not, to be honest, influenced by this blog!) has decided to clamp down on their use. Doctors will be told to stop the over-prescribing of the drugs; something that has been linked to 1,800 premature deaths a year. 180,000 patients are prescribed the drugs each year despite the fact that they do not benefit three-quarters of the people given them and can cause strokes. The clamp down on the over use of the drugs comes as part of a dementia plan backed by £200m of funding aimed at diagnosing sufferers earlier and making sure they receive better care in hospitals and care homes.
You can read more about this story here.
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