It looks like a case of all talk and no action.
According to a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report, the misuse of dangerous antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes is still putting lives at risk.
Especially for those with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Of course, it’s not the GAO’s job to fix this problem. That should fall on the shoulders of the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services.
But without any action on the part of those agencies, it looks like this kind of “drug abuse” will keep on destroying lives.
So it’s more urgent than ever that you know how to protect yourself and your loved ones from becoming just another statistic…in the next report.
Drugging outside of the box
One shocking detail discovered by the GAO is that instead of the HHS stepping in and doing something about over-medicating nursing home patients – as the agency said it would back in 2011 – the problem has grown bigger.
The practice of doping up patients with risky antipsychotic meds now appears to have spread throughout the healthcare system to places you might never have suspected.
That means any senior who sets foot in an institution intended to help them recover from an injury, operation or illness might be in danger of being “drugged.”
The GAO found that one in three nursing home residents with dementia or Alzheimer’s has received at least one (and probably more) of these terribly dangerous antipsychotic drugs, like Abilify, Risperdal and Seroquel.
But that wasn’t all.
It also found these drugs were being prescribed for patients being cared for in residential and rehab facilities.
The risks of giving such substances to older people (usually to keep them from being bothersome) includes bone-breaking falls that can often result in death, as well as strokes and confusion.
Even the FDA admits they shouldn’t be taken by the elderly. In fact, it made drug companies add a black box warning to that effect. But a warning — any warning, even one with black lines around it — only works when doctors actually read it, and then act on it.
And the real problem behind the misuse of these drugs looks to be an even bigger one than the reports and studies indicate. Because whenever there are billions of dollars to be made, the solution will never be a simple one.
Back in 2009, Eli Lilly was hit with a $1.4 billion fine for hyping its antipsychotic called Zyprexa to elderly patients in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. That was supposed to serve as a warning to drug makers who profiteer on helpless patients.
But obviously, it didn’t.
Just a little over a year ago, the Justice Department agreed to a $2.2 billion settlement in a case against Johnson & Johnson involving the company’s aggressive marketing of antipsychotic drugs to nursing homes. The DOJ called it “one of the largest health care fraud settlements in U.S. history.”
J&J was also said to have paid kickbacks to doctors as well as Omnicare, the country’s biggest pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities.
And just last month a nursing home psychiatrist in Chicago pleaded guilty to receiving drug-company kickbacks. Dr. Michael Reinstein got “consulting fees” and money to wine and dine his friends for writing as many prescriptions for clozapine (another antipsychotic) as possible.
So it doesn’t seem to matter how many billions in fines Big Pharma is slapped with. Those who are the most vulnerable are still being preyed on by the makers of these drugs.
And the profits are so huge that the fines and settlements are evidently considered just pocket change.
Unfortunately, when a loved one is in a facility, most of the time a family doesn’t even have a clue as to what drugs they’re being given or why mom or dad is suddenly unable to function at all.
A classic example was Kathi Levine’s mother Patricia, who was sent to rehab after breaking her pelvis.
Levine “literally freaked out” after seeing the list of the meds they put her mother on while she was at the facility.
Included in that list were two powerful antipsychotics. These were drugs that made her mom so “out of it” that she ended up in a wheelchair mumbling to herself.
So if a member of your family is in a facility where they’re receiving any medications, it’s vital that you demand a list of every single one they’re being given. And if you’re asked to give your okay for any new one, find out exactly what it is, and why it was prescribed.
Don’t simply take the fact a doctor signed off on it as proof of its being either necessary or safe.
Because in many cases, it might not be either.
Sources:
“Feds do little to halt antipsychotic use among elderly not in nursing homes” Ed Silverman, March 2, 2015, The Wall Street Journal, blogs.wsj.com
“Antipsychotics frequently prescribed to adults with dementia despite risks” March 2, 2015, Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, time.com
