Antipsychotic drugs prescribed to as many as one in seven patients with dementia at nursing homes increase the risk of death and are not approved for such uses, a government audit has found.
Drugs such as Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Abilify and Geodon are "potentially lethal" to many of the patients getting them and in many cases, completely unnecessary and unneeded.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that some of the inappropriate use of antipsychotics can be attributed to drugmakers' habit of paying kickbacks to nursing homes to increase prescriptions for the medicines.
Medicare officials said that diagnosis information is for the most part omitted from prescriptions so officials are unable to tell whether the prescription is appropriate.
The Food and Drug Administration has warned doctors of the risk of using antipsychotic drugs in elderly dementia patients, but doctors have continued the practice because of a relative lack of other options.
"Doctors want to maximize quality of life by treating the patient's agitation even if that means the patient will die a bit sooner," said Dr. Daniel J. Carlat, editor-in-chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report, a medical education newsletter for psychiatrists.
