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Both conventional and atypical antipsychotic medications have been cited as having adverse effects and worsening outcomes in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). In this NIH-funded study, researchers ascertained the impact of these medications on time to nursing home admission and time to death in 957 patients with mild-to-moderate probable AD between 1983 and 2005.
During follow-up (mean, 4.3 years), 241 patients received antipsychotics (conventional, 138; atypical, 95; both, 8). In analyses that adjusted for demographics, dementia severity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, extrapyramidal symptoms, and medications for dementia, conventional antipsychotics were associated with earlier nursing home admission than no an…