If you are a family member, care partner, care worker, nurse, or even a friend to someone who lives with Alzheimer disease or another type of dementia, or you yourself live with dementia, you may have heard of antipsychotic medications such as Haldol® (Haloperidol), Seroquel® (Quetiapine), Risperdal® (Risperidone), Zyprexa® (Olanzapine), and Abilify® (Aripiprazole), among others (see the additional list below). Maybe someone you know or you yourself are taking one or more of these medications, just like my mom did.
As part of my ongoing advocacy work, I’m helping the recently launched Canadian Deprescribing Network to better understand what people know about these drugs. To get the ball rolling, we’re asking people to answer a four-question, true/false quiz that takes less than two minutes to complete.
Will you help us gather information by taking the quiz and sharing this post with others so they can take it too? You’ll be contributing to valuable research, and you might learn something new in the process!
Click here to take the less-than-two-minute quiz
Note: you can see the answers by clicking the “Done” button at the end of the quiz.
Other antipsychotic medications:
Clozaril® (Clozapine)
Compazine® (Prochlorperazine)
Compro® (Prochlorperazine)
FazaClo® (Clozapine)
Geodon® (Ziprasidone)
Loxatine® (Loxapine)
Modecate® (Fluphenazine)
Orap® (Pimozide)
Permitil® (Fluphenazine)
Procomp® (Prochlorperazine)
Prolixin® (Fluphenazine)
Promapar® (Chlorpromazine)
Thorazine® (Chlorpromazine)
Trilafon® (Perphenazine)
Xylac® (Loxapine)
Zeldox® (Ziprasidone)
Zipwell® (Ziprasidone)
My Alzheimer's Story 
That was an interesting set of questions, Susan. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. xo Diana
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I did the quiz only to find out that it was a test to finally reveal to me what I already know – that antipsychotics are inappropriate in people with AD. Seriously, what a waste of time. I emailed them and told them that we need solutions, not a clever quiz. My mother’s doctor won’t agree to prescribing anything BUT an antipsychotic, even though I have requested an alternate solution.
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That’s an interesting response; and I understand your frustration. And yes, we desperately need solutions. However, many, many care partners go to their docs WANTING drugs, the care forums are full of people who want to give their PWLD antipsychotics – you should see the pushback I get when I post something advocating against them in the caregiver groups. The quiz, which was my idea BTW (LOL :P), is to help us gather information about knowledge levels in various stakeholder groups and also to help increase awareness of the risks associated with these meds. I think it’s great that a couple of geriatricians have begun this deprescribing initiative, one stream of which is targeted at the medical community, and one stream of which (recently launched) is targeted at “users.”
Thanks for your sharing your reaction; it’s one I hadn’t expected. BTW, we can talk more about this in that upcoming “quiet time.” 😉
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