There is a growing concern that too many Alzheimer’s patients are being given dangerous medicines which are actually hastening their death.

For patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and their caretakers, one of the most difficult aspects to deal with is the agitation that can occur. 

Faythe Mais Weaver cares for her mother, Wyrelena.

"She’s had few signs of agitation and irritability, and we’ve tried some of the medications. And on days when she’s really agitated, we just take her for long, long walks a lot,” she says.

 A report by British Alzheimer’s researchers has found that neuroleptics - antipsychotic medicines which act as sedatives - are causing many Alzheimer’s patients to die earlier. Those are drugs like haldol, risperadol, and chlorpromazine. 

Overall, the patients prescribed neuroleptics were twice as likely to die as those not on them - on average, six months earlier. 

It's already been established that these medicines, especially respirdal and zyprexa, increase the risk of stroke and death in Alzheimer's patients. 

Dr. Gunnar Gouras, a neurologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center, says, “In my practice because of these reports in the last few years of the potential detrimental effects of neuroleptics and sedatives. I’ve really cut back and am really careful when I give them. I give them to very few patients.”

The Alzheimer’s Society in Britain says those drugs must be used as a last resort, only when all other methods have failed to alleviate the most distressing symptoms of dementia.  

You should talk with your loved one’s physician about the medications he or she is on and whether the drugs are really necessary.