USA: Antipsychotics and the Elderly

Science and Health NEW YORK (The New York Times - Associated Press), June 17, 2008: The Food and Drug Administration warned doctors that prescribing a group of antipsychotic drugs to older people suffering from dementia could increase their risk of death. The announcement was an update to a 2005 action, when regulators added warnings about increased heart attacks and pneumonia to drugs called atypical antipsychotics. The medicines include Zyprexa, made by Eli Lilly & Company, and Risperdal, a Johnson & Johnson product. The agency said those same risks applied to 11 older drugs known as typical antipsychotics, including Navane, made by Pfizer, and Moban, made by Endo Pharmaceuticals. Under the agency’s orders, both drug types will now carry boxed warnings — the most serious a drug can carry — describing their risks to dementia patients.