A Victoria health researcher is calling for a public inquiry into B.C.'s use of a group of expensive antipsychotic drugs.

The drugs, known as “atypical antipsychotics”, are being prescribed for the wrong reasons to seniors and children, according to Janet Currie, the director of the Victoria-based Psychiatric Medication Awareness Group. She is also a board member of Vancouver-based PharmaWatch, a national organization that documents adverse reactions to prescription drugs.

“Atypical antipsychotics are only supposed to be prescribed for schizophrenia and psychosis,” Currie told the Georgia Straight. “Yet they're being used for sedation and behaviour control.”

In the U.S., more than 30 percent of seniors going into care homes are being given the drugs, yet less than 0.5 percent of people over 65 have schizophrenia or psychosis, she said. Although there is little B.C. data, Currie said she is “absolutely” sure that the drugs are being given to children and seniors here when they should not be.

“It's being prescribed way, way beyond the indicated uses of schizophrenia and psychosis,” she said.

B.C. taxpayers spent more than $51 million last year on the three most popular atypical antipsychotic drugs. According to B.C. Health Ministry data, PharmaCare paid $26,493,119 in 2005 for olanzapine, which is marketed as Zyprexa, $11,688,886 for risperidone, which is sold as Risperidal, and $13,279,737 for quetiapine fumarate, sold under the name Seroquel.

Currie said those figures suggest the drugs are being overprescribed in B.C.

Zyprexa is manufactured by Eli Lilly and Company. In a written statement provided to the Straight, Eli Lilly senior marketing communications consultant Stephanie Batcules said that “Zyprexa is approved for the treatment of schizophrenia and other related psychotic disorders, for manic and mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder, and for long-term maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder.

“It is not approved for use in elderly dementia patients nor is it promoted in this patient population,” she noted in the statement. “Lilly recommends that our products be prescribed and taken according to the Health Canada approved monograph and under the guidance of a health-care professional.”

B.C.'s assistant deputy health minister for pharmaceutical services, Bob Nakagawa, said the ministry does not check to see whether or not physicians are properly prescribing “restricted use” drugs like Zyprexa. “We don't follow up with each individual patient,” Nakagawa told the Straight.

Nakagawa said he is sympathetic to the idea of studying the use in B.C. of atypical antipsychotic drugs. He added that the government is carefully watching its spending on drugs.

Nakagawa emphasized that patients taking Zyprexa or other atypical antipsychotics should not stop taking them without the advice of their physician.

PharmaWatch cofounder and president Colleen Fuller says that some antipsychotic drugs are not properly tested before being marketed.

“A lot of the information that we have about these kinds of drugs has come not from the clinical trials but from post-marketing surveillance,” Fuller told the Straight. She added that about 10,000 Canadians die annually from adverse reactions to prescription drugs.

Marcy Cohen, the Hospital Employees' Union research director, said that staff in B.C. long-term care facilities are finding more behavioural problems and violence among residents.

She told the Straight she would not be surprised to learn that antipsychotic drugs are being used inappropriately. “It's a concern and it's certainly not unexpected in terms of the fact that they don't have enough staffing,” Cohen said.

More than 8,000 HEU members work in B.C. seniors homes, she said.

“The turn to drugs is not surprising, but I would like to see more investigation and a transparent process to look at the extent to which there is a problem with the use of antipsychotic drugs for people with dementia,” Cohen said.

NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Currie has raised important questions about atypical antipsychotic drugs.

“The amount provided by PharmaCare to fund these prescriptions suggests that a public review by a number of stakeholders would be appropriate,” Dix told the Straight. “The government should respond to the very strong arguments being made here.”