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BACKGROUND: Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia are frequently treated with antipsychotics. AIMS: To determine the incidence of antipsychotic use in relation to diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. METHOD: Cohort of all community-dwellers in Finland diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2005 and matched controls. All antipsychotics dispensed between 1995 and 2009 were extracted from the Finnish National Prescription Register. RESULTS: Altogether 1996/6087 (32.8%) persons with Alzheimer's disease initiated antipsychotic use. The incidence of antipsychotic use was fivefold among persons with Alzheimer's disease compared with controls, started to increase 2-3 years before diagnosis and was highest during the first 6 months after diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: A distinct increase in antipsychotic initiations occurs in the same time window as Alzheimer's disease diagnosis.
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Koponen et al. (2015) studied this question.
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