Use Of Antipsychotic Medications Increasing Among Seniors
According to a study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, the use of antipsychotic medications in “seniors increases with age.”
The study stated that “the percentage of people aged 80 to 84 who received a prescription for an antipsychotic was twice that of people aged 65 to 69.” The increased use of such medications among seniors “is occurring despite the known risks of serious side effects such as stroke, kidney damage, and death, they added.”
The Medical Daily reports that researchers “analyzed de-identified prescription data from nearly 33,000 retail pharmacies,” looking “for prescriptions of haloperidol, pimozide, aripiprazole, and olanzapine.” In total, the data they gathered “captured 63 percent of all retail prescriptions in the US, a nationally representative sample with respect to age, sex, and health insurance.”