Nursing Homes Are Drugging Dementia Patients

I have written about the Medicare Rating System for Nursing Homes before, but while I will touch on that in this article, this blog is about how low staffed nursing homes are caring for their dementia patients and it is deplorable! And what I will be detailing below, goes for some of the five star rated nursing homes as well.

This is an article that the New York Times investigated and reported on in a three-page expose on September 12, 2021. Basically, dementia patients who complained or were unruly between 1990 and 2020 were provided with a diagnosis by a doctor of schizophrenia, and administered antipsychotic medications, like Seroquel, Abilify, and Zyprexa, along with other drugs that made patients drowsy and at risk for falls.

Just like with jails, when schizophrenia patients were released, some went to the street, and some into nursing homes, but when combined with dementia patients who do not hallucinate and have delusions, the number of people who have been on these drugs has ballooned. Out of the 1.1 million nursing home residents, 21%, or 225,000 patients are on antipsychotic drugs, according to the NYTs.

Normally, schizophrenia is diagnosed before aged 40. Dementia patients who are on these drugs, can have heart problems and clinical trials have concluded that dementia patients can die from these drugs! No doubt, caring for a dementia patient is resource intensive and if nursing homes do not have adequate staffing levels, then this practice persists.

Nursing home aides and nurses are down since the pandemic nationwide. The Times estimates that nursing employment is down by 200,000 workers, it’s worst level since 1994. While you would think, this would jeopardize a nursing homes’ quality rating by Medicare, nursing homes have learned how to skirt the issue. That is why you see this practice in 5 star rated nursing homes, as well as lower rated nursing homes.

As the US has tried to limit the use of antipsychotic drugs, nursing homes have turned to other drugs, like Depakote, which is for epilepsy and bipolar. These drugs also make people drowsy and subjected to possible falls. In no way do these drugs help people with dementia. Depakote is manufactured by Abbot Labs and whose salespeople were telling nursing homes that this drug would fly under the radar. 

In a law suite against Abbot, Abbot agreed to pay the government in 2012, $1.5 billion for inappropriately marketing the drug Depakote to nursing homes. Yet, it is still used in nursing homes.

What can you do?

1. When you visit a nursing home, look the people in the eye and inquire about the use of antipsychotic drugs and other chemical drugs for dementia patients.

2. Ask about their staffing ratios for dementia patients during the week and on weekends.

3. Ask about the number of truly schizophrenia patients in their facility that are not dementia patients and whether there is separation of each in the facility.

4. Take a tore of the dementia wing and notice if people are drowsy, sleeping, or not up and about.



5. Take notes and ask lots of questions.

Please contact Health Advocate Experts if you or a loved one needs assistance at info@healthadvocateexperts.com.