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Overdosing the elderly
Following the news that orphaned babies are being treated with psychiatric drugs, a couple of medical journals report that people in nursing homes are increasingly dosed with antipsychotics. According to these studies (see CBC News and Archives of Internal Medicine), roughly 25% of all nursing home residents are given antipsychotics, often for no medical reason or benefit... and despite the fact that the drugs are linked to an "increased risk of death" among the elderly.
Antipsychotics are typically used to treat schizophrenia and manic depression, but nursing home doctors have been prescribing them for angry or "delusional" patients.
If we are just going to dope the elderly up with drugs that can kill them, why not save the expense of eldercare altogether and set them adrift on ice floes?
Posted by Carrie McLaren on 06/14/2005 | Permalink
Comments
Ice floes? Why do you propose ruining the arctic environment with unwanted humans? Much better to let Dr. Kevorkian out of jail, is the better solution.
Posted by: Mark | Jun 15, 2005 2:35:47 AM
Can we really be too upset about this? I think we're being a bit hypocritical here in that the reason these people are being overdosed is that we're sending them to the nursing homes in the first place. I'm willing to wager that no higher percentage of StayFree readers are keeping their grand/parents out of these horrid places in the first place. I mean, why the fuck would you send your mum to a place staffed by semi-literate minimum wage workers? Certainly, we can rail against abuse in these places, and we should. . .but I don't think they should exist in the first place.
Posted by: Tod Brilliant | Jul 1, 2005 10:54:37 AM
