Checks beginning on dementia medicine

Experts from the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs mental health services in Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield, are asking carers and family members to seek checks from GPs over anti-psychotic medication which has been given to people with dementia.

The drugs are used to treat people with illnesses such as schizophrenia but are also prescribed to dementia patients if they have severe behavioural and psychological symptoms.

Specialists say they can play an important part in treatment but can also cause serious side effects in particular if they are used for more than three months.

The trust is urging people to seek reviews of prescriptions in a bid to make sure the drugs are given only when they are needed.

The move has been backed by the Government’s national dementia strategy which has set targets for a reduction in antipsychotic drugs by two thirds by March 2012.

Staff at the NHS trust have devised The Right Prescription campaign to increase the number of clinical reviews

Principal pharmacist Mubashshir Fazlee said: “People living with dementia may be taking antipsychotic medication that they do not need.

“Whilst it would have been correctly prescribed there could be other alternatives available.”

To find out more about The Right Prescription campaign visit www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk/prescription.