The zyprexa and dementia controversy

June 17, 8:54 PMSF Mental Health ExaminerPaul Bright

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Prescribed medications are supposed to help us either cure or manage ailments.  Ones that affect our mental well-being, in particular, should be carefully prescribed. If the mind is negatively affected, how can the body be effectively healed? The current Zyprexa controversy should be a warning as to what can happen when dollars and advertisement can overrule true wellness.

A recent lawsuit claims that Zyprexa’s makers, the Ely Lilly & Company, are accused of marketing Zyprexa to doctors as a treatment option for psychotic symptoms related to dementia.Zyprexa is an anti-psychotic medication that is primarily used to treat bipolar and schizophrenic patients in order to help reduce the symptoms of psychosis. However, it had not been FDA-approved to treat dementia, according to a Harvard Medical School report published in 2004.  Trial studies conducted in 1999 revealed that not only was Zyprexa ineffective in relieving dementia symptoms in elderly patients, 3.5 percent of them died from strokes, a risk that is significantly increased when taking the medication. Patients taking Zyprexa vs. taking the placebo also were more likely to have strokes. Yet even after these results, some doctors felt that the benefits of treatment outweighed the increased risks and continued to push prescriptions.

Allegations state that Lilly was proposed an offer by a pharmacy benefits company to promote the drug to doctors on their behalf at a rate of $5 per letter. Other letters proclaiming Zyprexa’s benefits were written by the company, but they asked doctors to sign their names on them, a practice known as “ghostwriting”.

Some of these letters asked doctors to prescribe Zyprexa to treat dementia symptoms. 

Could their pushing be due to the influence of these ghostwritten letters? Legally, Zyprexa was not supposed to be marketed for dementia treatment, but doctors could still make recommendations at their discretion to prescribe it for dementia treatment, which resulted in 2 percent of all Zyprexa sales. But if a doctor signs his name on a ghostwritten study, this could cause confusion as to “who” is recommending “what”.

There are many more details to the Zyprexa case that can be read on some of the highlighted links. Overall, the unsealed documents, regardless of the outcome, do show that Ely Lilly has a strange relationship with doctors and marketing firms when it comes to Zyprexa. If you or a loved one has been prescribed Zyprexa for treating dementia at the advice of your doctor, you might want to pay more attention to these findings and the trial as it unfolds.