FILE – Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator, poses for a photo in her office, Washington, Feb. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
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The United States government announced that it will launch a campaign against the abuse of antipsychotic medications and the misdiagnosis of schizophrenia in nursing home residents.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will begin investigations this month in select nursing homes to determine if the diagnoses of the psychiatric disorder are correct.
Evidence has accumulated over decades that some nursing homes misdiagnose residents with schizophrenia or give them antipsychotic drugs to sedate them despite dangerous, even life-threatening side effects, the agency said.
No resident of a nursing home should be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia or improperly given an antipsychotic,” Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “The steps we are taking today will help prevent those mistakes and give peace of mind for families.
Some nursing homes could evade an inspection for unnecessary use of antipsychotic medication by classifying residents as schizophrenic, even if they exhibit no signs of a disorder that is extremely rare, according to a government report last year. It is believed that less than 1% of the population suffers from schizophrenia, characterized by delusions, hallucinations and thought disorders.
In 2012, the federal government began tracking antipsychotic use in nursing homes, but only in residents not diagnosed with schizophrenia, something that can affect a facility’s rating in a public database.
The supply of antipsychotics to nursing home residents has dropped to less than 20% in recent years, according to federal data.
However, a November report from the Department of Health’s inspector general revealed that the number of residents reported as having schizophrenia without a corresponding diagnosis rose sharply from 2015 to 2019, with 99 nursing homes across the country reporting that at least 20% of its residents suffer from the disorder.
“The number of unsubstantiated schizophrenia diagnoses increased, and in 2019 was concentrated in relatively few nursing homes,” the report stated.
Source: El Nuevo Herald
