english.prescrire.org > Spotlight > Archives : 2005 > Neuroleptics: increased mortality among elderly patients

Spotlight: Archives

Every month, the subjects in Prescrire’s Spotlight.

2005 : 1 | 30 | 60

Neuroleptics:
increased mortality among elderly patients

Deaths among patients being treated with newer neuroleptics are higher among the elderly. This increased mortality could also apply to other, less recent neuroleptic drugs.

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued warnings concerning the use of newer neuroleptics among elderly patients.

17 clinical trials carried out on patients suffering from dementia and behaviour disorders revealed a higher death rate among patients treated with the recent neuroleptics, olanzapine, aripiprazole, risperidone and quetiapine. The deaths are chiefly due to heart-related events (heart failure and sudden death) and infections (pneumonia).

In the USA, the warning has been extended to clozapine and ziprasidone, due to their similarity to newer neuroleptics.

Since the safety profiles of neuroleptics are all very similar, a comparable risk with other, less recent neuroleptics cannot be ruled out.

©Prescrire June 2005

Source: "Neuroleptiques : surmortalité de patients âgés" Rev Prescrire 2005 ; 25 (262) : 432.

- More articles in Prescrire's "Spotlight"...