Long-awaited dementia drugs review published next month

The long-awaited review into the prescribing of antipsychotic drugs for people with dementia will report next month, the government has announced.

Care services minister Phil Hope gave the pledge in a written parliamentary answer to a question posed by Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow.

The review, by the government’s adviser on older people’s mental health, Professor Sube Banerjee, was announced in June 2008, and the national dementia strategy, issued in February, said the review would be published in spring 2009.

Its delay has prompted widespread criticism from campaigners, led by the Alzheimer’s Society.

There are longstanding concerns that antipsychotics are being prescribed inappropriately for people with dementia, given their side effects include increased risk of strokes or death.

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