British researchers said on Friday that anti-psychotic drugs used to treat aggression in patients with Alzheimer’s disease could significantly raise their risk of premature death. Clive Ballard, paper's lead author, of the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases at King's College London said, "For the vast majority of Alzheimer's patients, taking these drugs is probably not a worthwhile risk. Would I want to take a drug that slightly reduced my aggression but doubled my risk of dying? I'm not sure I would."

In the three year long study Ballard and colleagues followed 165 patients aged 67 to 100 years who suffered from moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease in Britain. Half the study group continued with their anti-psychotic drugs, which included Risperdal, Thorazine and Stelazine while the second group was given a placebo.

The researchers found that of the 83 patients who were given the anti-psychotic drugs 39 of them died after a year while during the same period out of the 82 on placebos 27 died. Most of the deaths in both the groups were due to pneumonia. After a period of two years the group taking anti-psychotic drugs had 46 % patients still alive as compared to 71 % of those on the placebos. After three years the results got bleaker with only 30 % of the group on drugs alive versus 59 % of the placebo group.

"Our data add further serious safety concerns about the long-term use of antipsychotics in this population, and clinicians should certainly try to replace antipsychotics with safer management approaches," the researchers wrote.

Alzheimer's is an incurable brain disease and the most common cause of dementia which can cause aggression, delusions and hallucinations. Anti-psychotic drugs are the drugs recommended but previous studies have linked usage of these drugs to raise the risk of death in older patients with dementia when taken for a few months. There are other side effects, including respiratory problems and stroke.

How the anti-psychotics increase patients' risk of dying is not clear though experts feel the drugs could be damaging to the brain and their sedative effects make patients less able to exercise and more susceptible to deadly infections.

"The drug regimen for any person with Alzheimer's needs to be personalized," said William Thies of the Alzheimer's Association in the U.S who was not connected to the study. "At some points, some people will be better off with no medication."

Richard Perry, a neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare in London, said, "This work highlights the pressing need to develop and evaluate alternative pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for behavioral symptoms in dementia."

The researchers concluded by saying, "Our opinion is that there is still an important but limited place for atypical antipsychotics in the treatment of severe (symptoms), particularly aggression. However, the accumulating safety concerns ... emphasize the urgent need to end unnecessary and prolonged prescribing."

The research was published Friday in the medical journal, Lancet Neurology while the study was paid for by the U.K. Alzheimer's Research Trust.