Alzheimer disease patients who initiate treatment with antipsychotic medications spend more days hospitalized than those who do not initiate antipsychotics, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.
Marjaana Koponen, Ph.D., of the Kuopio Research Center of Geriatric Care at the University of Eastern Finland, and colleagues used a nationwide exposure-matched cohort to identify 70,718 Finnish patients diagnosed with Alzheimer disease between 2005 and 2011. Patients who were started on antipsychotic medication were followed for two years.