The elderly people with dementia taking antipsychotic drugs, even for a very short period of time, are much more likely to die or get hospitalized, revealed a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The results of the study echo an early study showing that patients with Alzheimer's disease who took antipsychotic drugs died six months earlier than those who did not take the drugs.

The study found that the people taking generics haloperidol and loxapine were 3.8 times more likely to die to get hospitalized, the study shows.  Those who took newer medicines like Zyprexa made by Eli Lilly & Co. and Risperdal by Johnson & Johnson were 3.2 times more likely to have complications or die.

Published in the May 26 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the study involving 41,000 dementia patients aged 66 or older for 30 days and excluding people with severe injuries but not hospitalized. The study found that nearly 17 percent of dementia patients in nursing homes were prescribed an antipsychotic drug within 100 days of their admission.  These patients were found twice as likely to die or get hospitalized as those who did not take the medication.

Antipsychotic drugs are commonly used to treat some of the behavioral complications of dementia, including delirium. Newer antipsychotic medications such as Zyprexa (olanzapine) and Risperdal (risperidone) have been available for about a decade and have largely replaced their older counterparts.