The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · May 2007
Neither atypical nor conventional antipsychotics increase mortality or hospital admissions among elderly patients with dementia: a two-year prospective study.
Antipsychotics are widely used to manage behavioral disorders in patients with dementia. Recently, serious concerns have been raised about the stroke and mortality risk of atypical antipsychotics when administered to patients with dementia. ⋯ Among these frail and very old patients with dementia, neither the use of atypical antipsychotics nor the use of conventional neuroleptics increased mortality or hospital admissions. The use of restraints, however, doubled the risk of mortality.