Nursing Homes Give Seniors Bogus Diagnoses to Drug Them, Report Says

At least one-fifth of the nation’s 1-plus million nursing home residents are being treated with antipsychotic drugs—with some doctors giving out bogus diagnoses to justify the sedatives. That’s according to an investigation by The New York Times, which found that one in nine nursing home residents has been labeled schizophrenic, even though the condition affects only one in 150 people in the general population. Some facilities are overusing the drugs in order to subdue patients and avoid having to hire extra staff—even though the medications can worsen dementia and cause heart problems and falls, the paper reports. “People don’t just wake up with schizophrenia when they are elderly,” Dr. Michael Wasserman told the Times. “It’s used to skirt the rules.”