Report
There is widespread concern about the over-prescribing of antipsychotics in dementia. Pharmacy is one of eight professional groups identified by Dementia Action Alliance and the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement in their Call to Action on the use of antipsychotic drugs for people with dementia.
The Department of Health’s 2009 report on the prescribing on antipsychotic drugs to people with dementia (the Banerjee report), estimated that there are 180,000 people with dementia who are currently prescribed antipsychotics and that two thirds of this prescribing is unnecessary.
Joint research undertaken recently by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS)
and the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement (NHS Institute) with
pharmacists and GPs has shown that conversations about the prescription of
antipsychotics for dementia are most effective when pharmacists are equipped
with the right facts and information.
This document contains a digest of information, guidance and tools to support
pharmacists and other healthcare professionals.