Pharmalot... Pharmalittle... Good Morning

"Those 85 and older are far more at risk of dying from Alzheimer's than those age 65 to 84,". Considering the risk of dying, period is greater in the older age group maybe we should take the study with a grain of salt.

Ed-About that Reuters article, I know you're trying to keep these to one line, but it's an opioid addiction drug that may need a higher dose. The idea that FDA thinks opioid doses are insufficient seemed, well, surprising.

Salient, perhaps the dosages they are taking down at the Agency are insufficient.

Hi Salient Point,

Thanks for asking about that. As you know, the Pharmalittle column aggregates stories and, yes, headlines are imperfect. This was a Reuters item, which was headlined similarly. And this is how the story began...

"Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc's experimental drug to treat opioid addiction was shown to be more effective than placebo in a clinical trial, but patients' response suggested that the proposed dosage might be too low, reviewers for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in documents published on Tuesday."

Assuming the story is correct - again, this is an aggregated item and I did not spend time doing my own reporting - the headline would appear to be appropriate. If there is evidence otherwise, it can be changed, of course.

Regards ed

Never heard before that people are dying of dementia. They dye from 1000 reasons, but not from dementia. Why do we need such headlines?

Because nobody would care if the headline was "Costs for care in the last years of Alzheimers are exploding"?

I hate when politics try to do science. Ends usually in very expensive nonsense.

People are dying of dementia when inapropriately prescribed antipsychotics. The majority of this use stems from the limitations put on physical restraints. Nobody wants to see Grandma in restraints for her own good but killing her with medication is just fine.

MC you're talking about iatrogenic death. AZ is not a terminal diagnosis in itself, thus the headline in Reuters is ill informed and misleading. Except for the rare as hens teeth early onset AZ these folks generally live to normal old age but with huge medical bills due to their AZ. They die from the same disaases as other folks. In fact if you have a good care giver capable of relating a good medical history then these problems can be addressed.

MC RPh, you are absolutely right. "5 at 5", Lilly's Zyprexa marketing scheme to nursing homes, and other such aggressive pushes into the nursing homes have made their mark. The estimates of the deaths of Alzheimers patients from atypical antipsychotics are very high. There has been little outcry - many families seem to feel relief. Perhaps they see it as mercy killing, but no, it's just another pharma scheme that ends in death.

Any relative that authorizes their doctor to administer to administer high dose antipsychotics to a non psychotic AZ patient is complicit in the commission of a homicide IMO, notwithstanding theIR temporary relief. Fortunately this practice has markedly dwindled due to the recent publicity.

Of course now the children are pissed off cause Big Mama is still alive and they have to keep shelling out $100K a year to keep her going in the nursing home cause the doctor won't give her "50 at 5", even though she's completely demented piss poor protoplasm and scores zero on the minimental status exam.