An economic evaluation of antipsychotic medications given to persons with dementia

Persons with dementia are often prescribed with antipsychotic medications, AP, even when they do not have the symptoms for which these medications were designed to treat. It is well documented that the consequence of this prescribing has many adverse effects, especially related to mortality. What is unknown is whether there are any compensating benefits of the AP in terms of dealing with the agitation associated with dementia that may increase the quality of life of those with dementia. This article carries out a comprehensive evaluation of the AP in terms of both mortality and the quality of life using a large national data set. We find that there are no benefits and only costs from taking the AP. We identify some of the possible pathways by which these adverse effects occur. Our conclusion therefore is that there is no justification for the persistent prescription of the AP for persons with dementia.