The misuse of antipsychotic drugs within the nursing home population is, unfortunately, a common and longstanding practice that puts elderly residents at increased risk of death. Fortunately, this practice has come to the forefront and numerous organizations are implementing policies in order to reduce and/or eliminate it. Reduction in the use of antipsychotic medications within our nursing home populations can not only dramatically reduce costs, but it will also result in better quality of care for patients.
In June 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced an initiative to decrease the inappropriate use of antipsychotic drugs. While many antipsychotics have been approved for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, they also bear black-box warnings against use in dementia patients. However, dementia patients make up a large majority of the nursing home patients currently receiving these medications. In fact, CMS indicated that in 2010, more than 17 percent of nursing home patients had daily doses of antipsychotic medications, an amount that exceeded the daily recommended levels. Additionally, CMS noted that almost 40 percent of nursing home patients with signs of dementia were receiving antipsychotic drugs in the same year. Therefore, almost 40 percent of nursing home patients were potentially receiving antipsychotic medications in direct contravention of a black-box warning.
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