Elder Abuse: Nursing Homes Often Use Anti-Psychotics to “Maintain Order”

Shockingly, nursing homes having been giving elderly residents anti-psychotic drugs–not to combat actual psychosis, but rather to quiet symptoms of Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia and make the patients more docile and controllable.

This overuse of anti-psychotics is so rampant that it accounts for why Medicaid has recently spent more money on anti-psychotics than on any other type of pharmaceuticals.

This is not wholly due to malicious intent on the part of the nursing homes, but also on the fact that federal insurance programs are more willing to give money for drugs rather than for the extra staff that are needed to care for elderly patients with dementia.

This report highlights how medical institutions can harm the most vulnerable patients by giving them medications they do not require in order to meet economic or administrative goals.