Atypical antipsychotics associated with acute kidney injuries in elderly adults.

HealthDay (8/20, Haelle) reports that according to a study(8/20) published Aug. 19 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, acute “kidney injury can be added to the list of possible harms related to use of three antipsychotic medications often prescribed to treat behavioral symptoms of dementia in older adults.” For the study, researchers examined health records of some 97,000 seniors over the age of 64 in Ontario, Canada, who were taking the atypical antipsychotics Seroquel (quetiapine), Zyprexa (olanzapine) or Risperdal (risperidone), medicines which are often used “off-label” to treat agitation in people with dementia.

        MedPage Today (8/20, Fiore) points out that use of atypical antipsychotics in this population was also tied to “an increased risk of hospitalization for: hypotension: RR 1.91 (95% CI 1.60-2.28), acute urinary retention: RR 1.98 (95% CI 1.63-2.40),” and “all-cause mortality: RR 2.39 (95% CI 2.28-2.50).”

        Medscape (8/20, Brauser) reports that the study authors “note that the US Food and Drug Administration issued a black-box warning in 2005 on the basis of 17 randomized controlled trials showing that elderly patients with dementia who received an atypical antipsychotic had a 1.6 to 1.7 times’ greater mortality risk than those who received placebo.” The study’s lead author expressed his surprise “that so many patients were still receiving these prescriptions.”