Chicago Tribune exposes abuse of psychotropic drugs in IL nursing homes
Courtesy Paul Nidich, http://www.paulnidich.blogspot.com/
Illinois nursing home patients often receive psychotropic drugs withoutcause, which poses various health dangers and even death, the Chicago Tribunereports as part of its Compromised Care series. “Frail and vulnerableresidents of nursing homes throughout Illinois are being dosed withpowerful psychotropic drugs, leading to tremors, dangerous lethargy anda higher risk of harmful falls or even death, a Tribune investigationhas found. Thousands of elderly and disabled people have been affected,many of them drugged without their consent or without a legitimatepsychiatric diagnosis that would justify treatment, state and federalinspection reports show.”
The Tribune identified about 1,200such violations at Illinois nursing homes since 2001. The newspaper’s”unprecedented review of more than 40,000 state and federal inspectionreports found that nursing homes ranging from ‘five-star’establishments on the North Shore to run-down facilities in urbanneighborhoods have been cited for improperly administering psychotropicdrugs.”
According to the story, the “findings come at adifficult time for Illinois nursing homes, which are already under firefor housing violent felons alongside geriatric patients and for failingto accurately assess the risk posed by the most serious offenders. …The misuse of psychotropics, which some experts say is a nationwideproblem in nursing homes, suggests a troubling future for manyseniors. … In testimony before Congress two years ago, Food and DrugAdministration scientist Dr. David Graham estimated that thousands ofnursing home residents die each year because antipsychotic drugs areadministered to patients who are not mentally ill” (Roe, 10/27).
In a separate piece, the Chicago Tribunereports on one such senior’s death. “Just eight hours after he movedinto the nursing home, state inspection records show, Lloyd Berkley wasapproached by four employees, one of whom had a needle behind her back.While three of them held down the 74-year-old man, the fourth injectedhim with a high amount of the antipsychotic drug Haldol, which quicklysedated him, according to state records.” But hours later, the man felland injured his head. He died at a hospital. “The worker with theneedle, investigators discovered, was not licensed as a nurse and didnot have a doctor’s order to give the man the medication. Berkley’sdeath offers a dramatic example of a common problem in nursing homes:heavily drugged residents falling and suffering injuries — or worse”(Roe and Leonhardt, 10/27).
Chicago Tribune via Kaiser Health News, http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2009/October/28/Nursing-homes-series.aspx