People with learning disabilities routinely inappropriately prescribed antipsychotics, report finds

Large numbers of people with learning disabilities are being inappropriately prescribed antipsychotic drugs, according a new UCL study. The study, published in The BMJ, looked at anonymised GP records of 33,016 UK adults with learning disabilities between 1999 and 2013. It found that more than a quarter had been prescribed antipsychotic drugs, of whom 71% had no record of severe mental illness. Antipsychotic drugs are designed to treat severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. There is little evidence that they help to address behavioural problems not due to mental illness in people with learning disabilities. Despite this, the study found