By Jeff Minerd, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
October 20, 2005
Review
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20 - Elderly patients with dementia who take so-called atypical anti-psychotic drugs have an increased risk of death, according to a meta-analysis of clinical trials.
The increased risk of about 50% compared with placebo was not found for any individual drug and could not have been detected by any of the individual trials included in the analysis, according to a report published in the Oct. 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"It is only when all trials are combined that a statistically significant effect is found," said Lon S. Schneider, M.D., and colleagues at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Read more at...medpage Today
Posted by gruwell at October 21, 2005 8:43 AM | TrackBack