Some Nursing Homes Giving Dementia Patients Antipsychotics Without Their Consent.

Hannah Flamm wrote for the Washington Post (8/10) about antipsychotic use in nursing homes for dementia patients, saying their use “as chemical restraints – for staff convenience or to ‘discipline’ a resident – has a long history in nursing homes,” and that for “more than a decade, the Food and Drug Administration has required manufacturers to place the strongest caution…on the packaging to advise against the medicines’ use in these patients.” These drugs “almost double the risk of death for them and have never been approved as safe or effective for treating symptoms of dementia,” but despite that “warning, nursing homes still often administer antipsychotic drugs in this manner, sometimes without seeking informed consent first,” Flamm said.
The American Psychiatric Association has “conclude[d] that the drugs offer ‘at best small’ potential benefits…while ‘on the whole, there is consistent evidence that antipsychotics are associated with clinically significant adverse effects, including mortality.’”
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