Overdrugging the Elderly- Abuse by Physicians, Pharmacies, and Staff

The overuse of drugs in the elderly is a national crisis. Since many of them are ill, some mentally ill, they have no ability to stand up for themselves. Between the doctors, nursing staff, and pharmacists, they have no chance against the system. They are drugged for health ailments, drugged so they will sleep and not bother the staff, drugged so they cooperate with the staff, and drugged so they don't wander out of their rooms.

I write this article from personal experience having spent way too much time in nursing homes with the people I have loved and lost. This article is dedicated to Peter and Buachom, who have been dead many years. I fought the system in their behalf until they both died. They were married almost 55 years by that time.

Here is a statement from Dr. Peter Hunter, the president of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric medicine. He states, " I see a lot of elderly people in the wards on crazy combinations of medications." He further states that, "People started on drugs to counteract the effects of another drug; illogical combinations of medications. I tell my medical students the three main causes of acute confusion in older people are drugs, drugs and drugs." His article is listed in my references and should be viewed by any one who has an elderly friend or parent.

Over the years, I have spent a lot of time with elderly patients including my father before he died. I was power of attorney for several years for a couple in a low income, nursing home in Brawley, CA. What I saw made me sick and I have seen it in other nursing homes as well. The nursing home in Brawley was one of the nicer ones in that area. I became power of attorney to help them pay their bills. Peter was paralyzed and Buachom was blind with severe dementia. They had no children or family to help them. I wanted them to move to another home but it was the only one that would allow them to live together in the same room. They refused to move for that reason.

After Peter's death, Buachom became worse. I was continually fighting with the staff over medication mistakes by the staff and cockroaches in her room. She went to the hospital three times for medicine over dosage. One night they called me stating her little dog was peeing on the floor. After spending the night there, it turned out that the wash room adjoining her bathroom was backing up into her room when the girls did the laundry. When I tried to alert someone, only one aide could be found to clean up the water. She lost her only good eye there due to an infection in the eye and flies. Their rooms opened out into a walled in court yard. Flies constantly were in the rooms. That nursing home was sighted many times for abuse. They simply fired all the staff, and hired new ones, and the abuse went on. I moved her against her will to the only decent nursing home in the area, located in Holtville.

Over- medicating the elderly is common and responsible for many deaths:

Between 85,000 and 110,000 people over 65 are admitted to hospitals each year because of the adverse effects of their medication This number does not take into consideration the deaths from over-medication that go unreported.

Why do these deaths from over-medication go unreported.? Most nursing home deaths are recorded on the death certificate as death by 'natural causes.' But drug over dose, dehydration, broken bones, and choking on their food or saliva is not natural. It is part of the neglect found in most nursing homes.

Dementia symptoms are often caused from drug interactions;

Many of the dementia symptoms are caused by the very medications they are prescribed. The medication may help one problem, but cause several other worse problems. Each one has its own side effects, then this is increased with each additional medication. The doctors and staff have no idea what symptoms are being caused by what medications. There is no research that even will give them this information. The elderly being frail and compromised, may also have more side effects than a younger person. Pain killing medications also have more impact than on younger patients. The only research that really exists is for individual medications. Many of the medications prescribed for the elderly have not been cleared to treat dementia symptoms. Often the diagnosis does not back up the use of that drug.

Drug companies indicted for fraud and greed at the expense of the elderly:

Johnson and Johnson has recently been indicted for paying kickbacks to the largest nursing home pharmacy, Omnicare, in the United States. Omnicare serves over 1.4 million residents of nursing care homes, assisted living, and other facilities throughout the United States. This suit was filed against them by the US Attorney's Office in Boston, Mass.

The company was turned in by their own employees for submitting false claims to Medicare. The complaint charges Johnson and Johnson and two of its subsidiaries with paying tens of millions of dollars to put pressure on Omnicare to purchase and push doctors to prescribe the drugs, Risperdal, Duragesic, Ultram, and Levaquin to elderly patients during the years from 1999 through 2004. Johnson and Johnson's profits skyrocketed from 100 million to 280 million. Omnicare settled the charges against them by the government for 98 million without having to admit actual guilt.

Eli Lily last January pleaded guilty to marketing anti-psychotic drugs such as Zyprexia to elderly patients for the treatment of dementia. They paid $1,425 billion to settle the criminal charges against them.

Our elderly patients should be protected by their doctors and their pharmacists, instead in many circumstances, they are being sold out in the name of greed.

What you can do?

For Seniors at home:

Put their medications in a 7-day weekly pill box with each day clearly marked. Check often to see if medicine tables are left, missing on the wrong days, or spilled on the floor. Don't leave bottles of medicine lying around. Put them away or lock them up if they have severe dementia. With severe dementia, they should have someone supervising their intake of medications. I have seen it many times, where the family felt they were fine with taking their own medications, but were not. In most cases, the family does not have the money to put in caregivers full time for that patient. Often, you find pills on the floor where they have dropped them or they end up down the sink.

Go through their medicine cabinet, look for old drug bottles that should be thrown out, and duplicate prescriptions,.

Look up every drug they are taking, the side effects, contraindications, and possible problems with other prescriptions they might be taking.

Discuss frankly with them the foods, dairy products, and alcohol that counteract their medications.

Make a point to go with your parents on their doctor's visits, so you know as much as they do. Ask why the physician is changing their medication or the reason for any new ones. Ask blunt questions and demand answers. If you object to a medication, refuse it, and ask for one less toxic. Before you allow them to take the medicine, research it yourself first. If you have objections, do not stop until you get answers.

Once they are taking the medication, watch for side effects in your elderly parent. If it having toxic affects, have it stopped and changed.

For the elderly in a nursing home;

Consult with their doctor on what meds they are taking and why? Research it yourself.

Monitor your elderly family member closely. Pop in unexpectedly. Always be aware of what the nursing staff is giving them and when. Tell the head nurse, you want to see the chart kept on the patient. Demand that they administer properly the care and medications required.

Watch the nursing staff for over-medication problems. If you find problems, advise the nursing staff.

If the nursing staff does not listen, go over their head to the nursing home director or to an outside reporting agency. Do not let it go, for it could cost your loved one their life.

If they do not need the medication, fight it.

The elderly have no one to fight for them, so as parents or friends, you must do that for them.

References:

www.smh.com.au/news/national/death-by-medicine/2007/08/17/1186857771586.html

http://blogs.healthfreedomalliance.org/blog/2010/01/19/johnson-johnson-accused-of-drug-kickbacks/

www.ct.gov/AG/cwp/view.asp

www.fagellaw.com/Information_Center/Medication_Error.aspx

www.phillipsandcohen.com/CM/FalseClaimsAct/FalseClaimsAct344.asp