More than one in five U.S. nursing home residents are given antipsychotic medications
What is your medical plan of action to reduce antipsychotics in your LTC community?
The prescribing of antipsychotic medications persists at high levels in U.S. nursing homes despite extensive data demonstrating marginal clinical benefits and serious adverse effects, including death,
The analysis included 1,402,039 individuals overall, as well as a subset of 561,681 with at least 3 months of continuous observation.
A total of 308,449 of the residents had been given at least one prescription for an antipsychotic.
In more than two-thirds of cases, the agents used were from the atypical class of antipsychotics, which are primarily indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
“The most common antipsychotics prescribed are often used for off-label indications related to dementia, and the extended durations of use raise concerns about the care of frail elders residing in [nursing homes],” the researchers stated.
In addition, among the observed subgroup, only 7.5% had been given just one antipsychotic prescription, and the median number of such prescriptions was 10.
Even though this data dates back a couple of years, the use of antipsychotics is still prevalent in long-term care communities. In fact CMS will be coming out with new mandates for 2018 so communities should start planning now to be ahead of the mandates.
Even though some states met the original reduction guidelines, we are finding they are having trouble meeting new mandates – and have been told more are coming in 2018.
One tool used in homes across the country to help make sure residents are on medications that are actually giving them therapy, is pharmacogenetic testing.
Pharmacogenetics aligns current and future medications with each persons unique genetic profile. This simple, fully reimbursed test, will help guide healthcare professionals when prescribing medication. It takes the “guess work” out of it and provides your clinical team with evidence-based results allowing right drug, right dose, for the right person.
PGx Medical is presently enrolling provider organizations and communities in a pharmacogenetic operational pilot program. If you would like to be part of this program, please contact us at, info@pgxmed.com or 405-509-5112.
source: medpagetoday.com