A drug used to treat agitation in people with dementia is no more effective than a placebo, and might even increase mortality, according to a new study.
The research, led by the University of Plymouth and published in The Lancet, has shown that antidepressant mirtazapine offered no improvement in agitation for people with dementia — and was possibly more likely to be associated with mortality than no intervention at all.
Agitation is a common symptom of dementia, characterised by inappropriate verbal, vocal or motor activity, and often involves physical and verbal aggression. Non-drug patient-centred care is the first intervention that should be offered but, when this doesn’t work, clinicians may move to a drug-based alternative. Antipsychotics have proven to increase death rates in those with dementia, along with other poor outcomes, and so mirtazapine has been routinely…
