Medicaid's abuse of anti-psychotic drugs

From Lucette Lagnado in the WSJ...

In recent years, Medicaid has spent more money on antipsychotic drugs for Americans than on any other class of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, AIDS drugs or medicine to treat high-blood pressure.

One reason: Nursing homes across the U.S. are giving these drugs to elderly patients to quiet symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

Nearly 30% of the total nursing-home population is receiving antipsychotic drugs, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, known as CMS. In a practice known as "off label" use of prescription drugs, patients can get these powerful medicines whether they are psychotic or not. CMS says nearly 21% of nursing-home patients who don't have a psychosis diagnosis are on antipsychotic drugs....

Federal and some state regulators are pushing back, questioning the use of antipsychotic drugs and citing nursing homes for using them in ways that violate federal rules....

The $122 billion-a-year nursing-home industry's use of drugs raises complex issues in an aging society. Revulsion against practices such as tying down and sedating disruptive elderly patients led in 1987 to a landmark federal law, signed by President Reagan, that set limits on how and when nursing homes can physically, or chemically, restrain a patient. Since then, a rising population of elderly people suffering dementia has entered nursing facilities, many of which have overburdened staff.

The vast majority of antipsychotic medicines paid for by Medicaid are atypical antipsychotic drugs, thought to have fewer of the side effects typical of older drugs. Many were introduced in the 1990s to treat schizophrenia, and have become huge sellers for pharmaceutical companies. Nursing homes turned to the drugs to try to calm dementia patients and to maintain safety and order in their facilities.

The newer antipsychotics are more expensive than older ones. A dose of Seroquel, for instance, can cost more than $4 at retail, while Risperdal can cost more than $5 a pill retail; older antipsychotics can cost less than a dollar per dose....

Nursing homes often find it difficult to balance the demands of caring for certain patients against the pressure to keep staff costs down. The economics of elderly care can work in favor of drugs, because federal insurance programs reimburse more readily for pills than people.

The use of antipsychotic drugs comes amid a wider debate about how to care for the rising numbers of seniors, many of whom have behavior problems stemming from dementia. They can be difficult to manage, at home or in an institution. They can cry, lash out, wander or even be violent, to themselves or others. There aren't many effective methods to calm them, doctors say.

A big question is whether to use a medical model -- administering antipsychotics as the way to alleviate distressing symptoms of dementia -- or trying to find other ways to help these patients....