The prestigious Dhole-Eddlestone Memorial Prize has been awarded to an Age and Ageing journal article examining the effects of discontinuing blood pressure treatments in older adults with dementia living in nursing homes. The prize is awarded annually to the most deserving medical research relating to the needs of older people, published in Age and Ageing, the scientific journal of the British Geriatrics Society (BGS) in the preceding year. The study was led by LEGend researchers Jonathan Bogaerts, Rosalinde Poortvliet, and their team. The randomised controlled trial assessed whether the discontinuation of blood pressure lowering medication reduced neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia, such as agitation, depression and sleep impairment, and whether it maintained the quality of life of the resident.
The study found that discontinuing treatment for high blood pressure did not help with the neuropsychiatric dementia symptoms and suggests that discontinuing the medication might be harmful. These findings challenge the common practice of deprescribing. In this case, previous research had suggested that continuing blood pressure lowering medication may exacerbate dementia symptoms and decrease quality of life.
While the article acknowledges the need for replication in a larger trial before it could be considered definitive, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that clinical teams need to carefully consider whether to discontinue blood pressure medication proactively in people living with dementia.
The Age and Ageing article, Effects of the discontinuation of antihypertensive treatment on neuropsychiatric symptoms and quality of life in nursing home residents with dementia (DANTON): a multicentre, open-label, blinded-outcome, randomised controlled trial. (, 2024), was published in July 2024.