Antipsychotics overprescribed to elders

[Sheila]

Associated Press
by Matthew Perrone
1 Dec 11

Government inspectors told lawmakers Wednesday that Medicare officials need to do more to stop doctors from prescribing powerful psychiatric drugs to nursing home patients with dementia, an unapproved practice that has flourished despite repeated government warnings.

So-called antipsychotic drugs are designed to help control hallucinations, delusions and other abnormal behavior in people suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but they're also given to hundreds of thousands of elderly nursing home patients in the U.S. to pacify aggressive behavior related to dementia. Drugs like AstraZeneca's Seroquel and Eli Lilly's Zyprexa are known for their sedative effect, often putting patients to sleep.

But the drugs can also increase the risk of death in seniors, prompting the Food and Drug Administration to issue multiple warnings against prescribing the drugs for dementia. Antipsychotics raise blood sugar and cholesterol, often resulting in weight gain.
….

A report by Levinson's office issued in May found that 83 percent of Medicare claims for antipsychotics were for residents with dementia, the condition specifically warned against in the drugs' labeling….


http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/3...sych-drug.html

[Junior]

GRRRRRR this makes me really angry. It is not just 'over-prescribing'. It is outright abuse. Abuse of people who fought for us in wars. Abuse of people who worked hard all their lives and paid their taxes. Abuse of people who understood common courtesy and respect for others, which is sadly lacking in modern times. These people deserve far better.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Samsara]

These drugs are also prescribe to elderly who still have vibrant minds but are physically incapacitated and thus, in a nursing home. I was made aware of one woman (although not the only case) who deteriorated, who became passive, lifeless.

A social worker told me was baffled as to WHY this vibrant women deteriorated so quickly. I told her that the elderly woman was likely being medicated with benzos or antipsychotics as a means to get her to sleep since, nursing homes can be noisy places. Like most hospitals, they medicate people so they are undisturbed by the night-shift staff and/or by other patients. Also, staff do not wish to deal with patient complaints about noise etc. More I can relay but I'd be typing forever.

I told the social worker to find out WHAT medications they were giving this woman.

Without going into specifics, I was on many committees and there were regular reports of geriatric patient abuses. It's very important for the elderly to have family and/or friends to regularly visit them and keep tabs on things since, the elderly who have NO ONE are the ones who are the most subject to abuses and neglect.

Junior, I couldn't agree more with all that you have stated.

I was in the hospital for ONE evening during acute WD and I was placed in a room with a geriatric patient, because there were no beds available on another floor, who suffered from dementia. She was left alone virtually most of the time, kept in diapers and medicated to the hilt. Her diaper had not been changed for hours on end.

She wanted to go to bed. I went to the nurses station THREE times to get someone to assist her. They did not show up. BTW, this went on for a matter of HOURS. I had to leave my room for a short time and when I came back, the elderly woman was face down in the bed, passed out but still strapped into her wheelchair. It was obvious she had struggled to free herself from the chair but was unsuccessful and landed up falling asleep face down on the mattress.

There's also more to the story but it's too long to type out. Long story short, I was so angry and I went to the nurses's station and got someone to get that poor woman safely into bed. TBH, I was very sickened by what I observed within a 24 hour period of time on that whole hospital floor.

So much more I can write about this subject but long story short.......I'd rather die at home than to be in even the most respectable nursing homes or even a hospital. They are not safe places IMHO and /or they will try to unnecessarily try to prolong you life with toxic drugs (as they did with my mother) creating more suffering and you land up dying a much uglier death than if they would have left you alone to die naturally.



Samsara