It seems National Public Radio is digging in to America’s long term care industry and examining issues of patient safety and care. Last week they did a feature on falls. Yesterday this great feature aired about the use of anti-psychotic medications in elderly patients. Medications that the FDA warns should not be used in such
overmedication
The over-medication of nursing home patients is a major problem. By overmedication, I don’t mean too many pills for various acute or chronic conditions – but rather, whether patients are given too much of a medication such that their behavior was altered, or their behavior subdued. Think overdose. Think somnolent, sleepy, not easy to awake, “out of it,”