Government must call time on the chemical cosh - Burstow

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 19th Jun 2008

Sutton and Cheam MP, Paul Burstow, led a delegation of Alzheimer's charities to lobby Health Minister, Ivan Lewis, to take action to end the scandal of over and inappropriate prescribing anti-psychotic drugs to older people with dementia on Thursday (19th June). The delegation discussed Government plans for a review of prescribing. But the review has been branded as 'too little, too late' by Paul Burstow MP, who has been waging a parliamentary campaign on the issue for the past eight years.

Earlier in the day Mr Burstow also met with the General Medical Council to discuss its role in changing the prescribing practice of doctors and disciplining doctors who ignore the evidence of the harmful and life threatening effects of the drugs.

Commenting Paul Burstow said: "A review of anti-psychotic drugs is too little, too late. The evidence is already compelling, these drugs don't treat dementia, they cut lives short.

"The US Drug Administration has just issued a black box warning against prescribing anti-psychotics to older people. European drug regulators are set to require much tighter prescribing rules. UK regulatory authorities must act now so doctors can be in no doubt about the risks when they prescribe these drugs.

"We urged the Minister to make sure that his review is action orientated and urgent. The evidence is clear what is required now is an action plan that changes clinical practice. He asked us to meet with his officials to feed in directly to the review.

"It is not just Government that must act, the GMC have to take a lead in challenging and changing prescribing behaviour."

ENDs

Notes

Recently, two observational epidemiological studies were published that examined the risk of death in elderly patients with dementia who were treated with conventional anti-psychotic drugs. The investigators compared the risk for death with use of an atypical anti-psychotic versus either no anti-psychotic or the use of a conventional anti-psychotic. These studies have limitations that preclude reaching a definitive conclusion about comparative death rates for atypical and conventional anti-psychotic drugs. Nevertheless, the FDA has concluded that these studies, along with the earlier evidence for atypical anti-psychotic drugs, suggest that both classes of drugs should be considered to have an increased risk of death when used in elderly patients treated for dementia-related psychosis.

Link to FDA black-box warning: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01851.html

Paul Burstow MP has been leading a parliamentary campaign to highlight the inappropriate and abusive prescribing of anti-psychotic drugs. He has published four reports titled Keep taking the medicine? over the past eight years. He has called a series of debates in parliament highlighting the risks and calling for action.

Link to Paul's most recent report: http://paulburstow.org.uk/resources/sites/217.160.173.25-3edc7f82c67eb0.46705678/Keep+Taking+the+Medicine+4.pdf