From the land of "well, duh!"

[Warpy]

Painkillers 'may ease agitation' in dementia patients

Many dementia patients being prescribed "chemical cosh" antipsychotic drugs could be better treated with simple painkillers, research says.

The British and Norwegian study, published on the BMJ website, found painkillers significantly cut agitation in dementia patients.
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After eight weeks, there was a 17% reduction in agitation symptoms in the group being given painkillers - a greater improvement than would have been expected from treatment with antipsychotics.

Since the Beeb doesn't know the difference between a sentence and a paragraph, there is much, much more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14138884

[DURHAM D]

1. no shit sherlock

thanks for posting

[bemildred]

2. Generally opioids are great for "agitation"; and cheap, and with agitated dementia patients,

who really gives a crap if they become addicted? Of course, you know in advance that these drugs will be "diverted" to other uses, but that's not new, is it?

[Maine_Nurse]

3. Actually, it isn't just opiods that work...

Many times, NSAIDs will do the trick. Sometimes agitation and even aggressiveness are just results of pain that can't be expressed. Even mild analgesics may work. Much safer than antipsychotics which we know shorten lifespans..

[bemildred]

4. I have no doubt you are correct.

Pain is not an exclusively physiological phenomena either. And enough pain will do a pretty good imitation of being psychotic or "agitated" too.

As a real nurse, I expect that you know that the minimum effective dosage of whatever works is the way to go.