More nursing homes are decreasing the use of antipsychotic drugs in patients suffering from dementia. The patients in several nursing home chains were receiving the drugs due to behavioral issues. However, when the drugs were removed from the patients incrementally, they were able to completely be free of the drugs and reduce the number of falls they were experiencing.
“The problematic behaviours that people were put on these medications to address in the first place actually declined by about a third and we also saw about a 20 percent decrease in the number of falls,” said a representative for healthcare improvement. “The other thing that we saw, really importantly, was across the board family members who said that as their loved ones came off these medications they started to feel like they were getting their loved ones back again.” For more, read the story.
