NY Times had an article about the overuse of certain medications in elderly residents. Below are excerpts of the article. Ramona Lamascola thought she was losing her 88-year-old mother to dementia. Instead, she was losing her to overmedication. Last fall her mother, Theresa Lamascola, of the Bronx, suffering from anxiety and confusion, was put on
Warren Wolfe of the Star Tribune in St. Paul, Mn. wrote a great article on the overuse of medications in the nursing home population. Thousands of nursing homes nationwide are using powerful antipsychotic drugs to quiet disruptive people with mild dementia — at times a step that’s easier and cheaper than training staff to fix the problem.
Journal of Clinical Nursing has an article about a recent study linking the use of sleeping pills containing benzodiazepines to increase falls in nursing homes. Older patients taking benzodiazepines were 2.9 times more likely to fall Obviously, patients who fall suffer severe injuries. Some older patients have impaired cognitive function or limited functional ability and physical
Kansas City, Missouri Police are investigating the alleged rape of an 80-year-old woman at a Northland nursing home. While management vehemently denies anything happened, a medical examination shows otherwise. The 80-year-old woman was found naked from the waist down Wednesday afternoon. According to the police report, the victim’s daughter noticed bruising in her private area and asked
Seniors in Ont. nursing homes overprescribed antipsychotic drugs: study In the nursing homes with the highest antipsychotic prescribing rates, 16.6 per cent of patients with neither psychosis nor dementia were given the drugs, according to a recent study. Ontario nursing homes are too quick to give vulnerable seniors antipsychotic drugs to keep them calm, suggests