26th March 2016 - New research

ANTI-PSYCHOTICS DOUBLE MORTALITY RISK IN PARKINSON'S DISEASE

As many as 60% of people with Parkinson's Disease experience psychosis, and so the use of anti-psychotics in Parkinson's Disease is common. The use of anti-psychotics has been found to more than double the risk of mortality in Parkinson's Disease.

Anti-psychotic use in Parkinson's Disease was associated with more than twice (2.35 times) the risk of death compared with non use of anti-psychotics. The risk was significantly higher for people who used typical rather than atypical anti-psychotics. Among the atypical anti-psychotics used the risk relative to non use of anti-psychotics in descending order were 2.79 for olanzapine, 2.46 for risperidone, and 2.16 for quetiapine. The researchers concluded that the use of anti-psychotics is associated with a significantly increased mortality risk in people with Parkinson's Disease.

This finding highlights the need for cautious use of anti-psychotic use in people with Parkinson's Disease including examining the role of non-pharmacologic strategies in managing psychosis in Parkinson's Disease, and that anti-psychotics that do not increase mortality need to be developed.

Reference : JAMA Neurology [2016] Mar 21 [Epub ahead of print] (D.Weintraub, C.Chiang, H.M.Kim, J.Wilkinson, C.Marras, B.Stanislawski, E.Mamikonyan, H.C.Kales) Complete abstract

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has just announced that Nuplazid (pimavanserin), which is Acadia Pharmaceuticals drug to treat psychosis associated with Parkinson's disease, was effective enough to warrant approval. Nuplazid could be the first drug specifically approved in the United States for Parkinson's disease psychosis (PDP). However, pimavanserin was previously found to increase the mortality rate even more than those drugs in the present study.  Complete abstract   For more news go to Parkinson's Disease News

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