Parkinson’s patients still given drugs that make them worse
Doctors
are still handing out drugs to some of their Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients
that worsen the condition and may even kill them. They are ignoring warnings
from drugs regulators, and are continuing to prescribe antipsychotic drugs to
up to half of their PD patients. These drugs make PD symptoms worse, and can
even kill the patients.
Despite
being considered too dangerous as long ago as in 2005, doctors have continued
to prescribe these drugs to PD patients who also have psychosis, a problem that
afflicts up to half of PD sufferers.
Researchers
from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, discovered that these
prescriptions are still rife when they evaluated the treatments of 2597 PD
patients in 2002 and again in 2008, three years after the drugs warning had
been issued (Arch Neurol, 2011; 68: 899–904).