A review carried out on Government orders has established that as many as 150,000 British patients with dementia and related conditions are unnecessarily prescribed anti-psychotic medicines by their doctors. It has been recorded that only 36,000 out of the 180,000 who are currently on these drugs actually benefit from them.

The review also noted that over prescription and unnecessary drug use leads to as many as 1,800 extra elderly deaths in a year.

Anti-psychotic drugs are licensed to be administered only to people with schizophrenia, and are being prescribed to many dementia patients in care homes and hospitals off-license.

The review has been written by Sube Banerjee, Professor of Mental Health and Aging at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, who is of an opinion that with appropriate action, it is possible to cut down the use of anti-psychotic drugs over a period of three years by as much as one-third of its current usage.

Authorities are now looking at ways to carry out the required cut down. The Government recently announced a plan to combat overprescribing of the medicines, stopping short of a complete ban.