Half of Dementia Patients Get Inappropriate Meds

More than half of elderly patients with dementia are prescribed at least one potentially inappropriate medication, a recent study from eight European countries suggests.

Some medicines are not typically given to older patients because the potential side effects outweigh their clinical benefit and because there are often safer or more effective alternatives available.

Researchers who studied more than 2,000 people with dementia from England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden found that 60 percent had been prescribed at least one potentially inappropriate drug, while over 25 percent had received at least two such medicines.

More details here