Nursing Homes Overdiagnose Schizophrenia, 20% To Get Away w Drugging Patients, Says New Investig.

- Daily Kos, Sept. 13, 2021.

There are few groups more vulnerable than those living in nursing or assisted living homes, the pandemic notwithstanding. However, with the pandemic raging on, many older folks are isolated or missing regular visits with family, friends, or community members. Stopping the spread of COVID-19 is, of course, an enormous priority when it comes to nursing homes, especially as anti-vaxxers in the healthcare world (some of whom may work with these vulnerable patients) push for the chance to avoid the vaccine.

In a different, but equally important, direction, however, The New York Times shared an investigative report on the use of antipsychotics in nursing homes, including the shocking finding that at least 21% of residents in nursing homes are on the extremely powerful drugs, such Haldol. Mental health is generally misunderstood in the U.S., but schizophrenia is one of the more maligned illnesses people live with. Schizophrenia can manifest differently for different folks, of course, and there are subsets of the illness based on symptoms. Even still, one commonality is that schizophrenia is nearly always diagnosed before the patient is 40 years old. It’s usually diagnosed starting in the teenage years, up to about 30 years old.

So, why are antipsychotics used for schizophrenia so prevalent in nursing homes? Even bigger picture than that: Why has the rate of schizophrenia diagnosis in nursing home patients increased from less than 7% to 11% in just a few years? As the Times finds it, understaffed nursing homes are giving residents this diagnosis, even when they don’t live with it, as a way to settle symptoms like agitation and restlessness—despite the obvious ethical issues and even the potential medical side effects. According to the Times, loopholes in the requirements for reporting drug usage to the federal government may have allowed the widespread use of these drugs to essentially explode in nursing homes.

So, here’s how this seems to happen, according to the Times. The government does require that nursing homes report the number of their patients treated with these drugs. But, the government does not require that number to be publicly reported if the patients are diagnosed with Huntington’s disease, Tourette’s syndrome, or, you guessed it, schizophrenia. Nursing homes also likely get away with this approach because schizophrenia is particularly misunderstood among the general population. About one in 150 people in the general public live with schizophrenia, which ends up being less than one percent of folks. But, as mentioned before, at least 20% of nursing home residents are diagnosed with it...

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/9/13/2051990/-Nursing-homes-overdiagnose-schizophrenia-to-get-away-with-drugging-patients-says-new-investigation