Dementia patients given anti depressants?

Elderly dementia patients are been given antidepressants drugs to lighten their mood,though theses mood staberlising drugs are causing them to lose their balance and fall. Lets look at why a person with a very short memory span need their mood enhancing when all it takes is understanding and proper Care. Is the reason for handing out pills cheaper than the cost of OT ( occupational therapy) staff to spend the time to understand why they feel like the way they do.

Care & understanding should be the first prescription

Understanding dementia is not a consept all a carrer has to do is distract or entertain so the elderly patient is not left with their thought patterns which normally are sparadic and negative out dated memories.

The Alzheimer's Society called for more research into alternative treatments.

It had been hoped that a move to newer SSRI-type drugs would reduce this problems, but the latest research, from the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, appears to show the reverse.

Dr Carolyn Sterke recorded the daily drug use and records of falls in 248 nursing home residents over a two-year period.

The average age of the residents was 82, and the records suggested that 152 of them had suffered a total of 683 falls.

The consequences of falls were relatively high, with 220 resulting in injuries including hip fractures and other broken bones - and one resident died following a fall.

More research is now needed to understand why this anti-depressant is having this effect on people with dementia and if there is an alternative treatment for depression that they could be prescribed.

Dr Sterke said that these risks needed to be taken into account when assessing whether anti-depressants were required.

She said: "Physicians should be cautious in prescribing SSRIs to older people with dementia, even at low doses."

Professor Clive Ballard, from the Alzheimer's Society, said it was "worrying" that such a commonly prescribed anti-depressant was causing increased risk.

Emotional freedom technique

This non-invasive, gentle approach effectively neutralises our initial emotional response by eliminating the energy disruption. Once the disruption is balanced, negative feeling is eliminated as is the physical discomfort in many cases. One is then left with an old, neutral memory which exerts no negative effect on the mind/body system. Because of its very high rate of success, the use of EFT has spread rapidly and medical practitioners employing EFT can now be found in every corner of the country and the world.