New research has highlighted fears of the misuse of strong sedatives in hospitals, while suggesting more than three quarters of patients with dementia receive the drugs to calm them down.

In a survey of 1,100 nurses, 77 per cent reported that people with dementia on general hospital wards were prescribed antipsychotic drugs, which increase the risk of death and stroke, and can make symptoms worse.

One in four said that the drugs were being used inappropriately, to sedate anxious or disruptive patients rather than give them proper treatment.

The poll by the Alzheimer’s Society comes as campaigners called on the Government to publish a review on use of the treatments, thought to be wrongly prescribed to at least 100,000 patients each year.

Last year, a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia concluded that proper staff training could reduce use of the drugs, improve care for patients and save money.

Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, said that the overprescription of the drugs was “an abuse of human rights”.

A Department of Health spokesman said last night: “People with dementia should only be offered antipsychotics if they are severely distressed or there is an immediate risk of harm.”

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