PHILADELPHIA / ANN ARBOR, Mich. — At least half of Parkinson’s disease patients experience psychosis at some point during the course of their illness, and physicians commonly prescribe antipsychotic drugs, such as quetiapine, to treat the condition.
However, a new study published in JAMA Neurology suggests that these drugs may do significantly more harm in a subset of patients. It was performed by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan Medical School, and the Philadelphia and Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers.
The researchers’ analysis of about 15,000 patient records in a VA database found that Parkinson’s patients who began using antipsychotic drugs were more than twice as likely to die during the following six months, compared to a matched set of Parkinson’s patients who did not use such drugs.
“I think that antipsychotic drugs should not be prescribed to Parkinson’s patients without careful consideration,” said first author Daniel Weintraub, MD, who is an associate professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at Penn Medicine and a fellow in Penn’s Institute on Aging.
Senior author Helen C. Kales MD, who is professor of Psychiatry at tjhe University of Michigan Medical School and a Research Investigator at the VA Center for Clinical Management Research added, “Treatment with antipsychotics should be reserved for those cases where the benefits exceed the risks.” Read more.