A study just out in the Archives of Internal Medicine provides evidence for what some doctors have suspected for a long time--that anti-psychotic medicines (like Haldol) given to patients with dementia result in a higher rate of hospitalization and death than for those who are not given these drugs.  You can read a good summary of the research here.  It turns out that 17% of patients with dementia are given antipsychotics to control their behavior upon admission to a nursing home.  Adverse effects, such as falls because of dizziness and pneumonia (associated with dry mouth) occurred within a month.