Diabetic Seniors and Antipsychotic Meds

If you know a senior who not only has diabetes but has begun showing signs of dementia for which they’re receiving antipsychotics, you may want to watch for signs of uncontrolled blood sugar levels. This seems to be an issue with the antipsychotic medications.

Researchers studied almost 14,000 seniors with diabetes who were prescribed antipsychotic medications to help manage their dementia symptoms. The patients were followed by the researchers for two years and the study results were published in the most recent issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine .

What the researchers found was that 11% of the group ended up in the hospital because of high blood sugar levels, many of whom were already being treated for diabetes, with either insulin or oral medications.

One of the big concerns of such findings is that the senior population is growing and so is the incidence of both diabetes and dementia. Therefore, doctors will need to be aware of this increased diabetes/antipsychotic risk.

A good article that explains this is Diabetic seniors taking antipsychotics face risks .

Another thing to keep in mind

Many seniors have different doctors for different health issues. It’s vital that each doctor be aware of all medications that their patients are taking. For this reason, carrying a medication journal would be a good idea. If the journal is kept up to date, then it can be presented to each doctor at each visit. This would allow them to see the patient as a whole, rather than as just the problem he or she is there for.

Another issue is different pharmacists. Just as patients may see different doctors, they may have their prescriptions filled at different places. This is a dangerous practice for anyone because pharmacists are the medication specialists. They are the ones who can identify if there are contraindications (rules against) some medications, they can warn people what to watch out for, and so on. If you must use different pharmacies, be sure that each pharmacy is also up to date on all the medications.

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Image: Newscom.com