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Phony diagnoses hide high rates of drugging at nursing homes

nytimes.com

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Re: Phony diagnoses hide high rates of drugging at nursing homes

#91

Post by winocm »

heavyset_go wrote: post #2

Antipsychotics are not something to be handed out like candy. They have serious, sometimes permanent and sometimes fatal, side effects in anyone of any age. The article notes how that class of medication increases mortality in elderly people in particular. The fact that some people were prescribed haloperidol as the first line of treatment instead of a newer, safer antipsychotics also blows my mind. I'm terrified of…

Heh, yes.

I developed tardive dyskinesia from use of antipsychotics over a period of 8 months. It's been over 6 years since I've taken them, but it still has not gotten any better...

You can still develop TD regardless of the drug, given that pretty much any dopamine antagonist can cause it in the long term.

Re: Phony diagnoses hide high rates of drugging at nursing homes

#92

Post by prepend »

quetzlbazaar wrote: post #17
heavyset_go wrote: post #2

Antipsychotics are not something to be handed out like candy. They have serious, sometimes permanent and sometimes fatal, side effects in anyone of any age. The article notes how that class of medication increases mortality in elderly people in particular. The fact that some people were prescribed haloperidol as the first line of treatment instead of a newer, safer antipsychotics also blows my mind. I'm terrified of…

The solution in my opinion to this problem is to permit euthanasia and for assisted suicide to become culturally accepted as an alternative to a drawn out death of dementia in a care home. The quality of life for many (not all) care home residents who are on these sorts of drug regimens is dire and in reality not entirely for their benefit, as is apparent to everyone including those responsible for oversight like Med…

These doctors can’t be trusted to treat patients with Haldol. I certainly don’t trust them to properly administer euthanasia.

If they are fabricating schizophrenia dx, then they would also likely to fabricate medical cause for euthanasia.

Re: Phony diagnoses hide high rates of drugging at nursing homes

#93

Post by tornato7 »

vgel wrote: post #85
calvinmorrison wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step 1) fabricate an SMS Step 2) call police Step 3) enjoy Wow so easy to take down your political enemies huh

This happened to a friend of mine. "Friend" of theirs who was angry they didn't have a romantic interest in him called the police claiming they were suicidal. Police came, handcuffed them, verbally abused them, and dragged them to a hospital against their will even though they were clearly fine. They were forced to stay there for ~a day and then had no means to get home, thankfully a friend was able to pick them up a…

Something similar happened to a friend of mine and you can find plenty of stories on the internet - the way suicidal people are treated by the police is actually cruel and I can't imagine it helps anyone who is really feeling suicidal.

My buddy got arrested, restrained to a hospital bed against his will, was given a cocktail of drugs, and had to stay there multiple days while getting a 'wellness check' every fifteen minutes where a nurse shakes you awake.

To top it all off they sent him home with a $60,000 medical bill.

Not a great way to treat someone who's going through a hard time. I definitely learned never to call the police unless someone is literally getting ready to jump off a building.

Re: Phony diagnoses hide high rates of drugging at nursing homes

#94

Post by coryrc »

WalterBright wrote: post #21
quetzlbazaar wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution in my opinion to this problem is to permit euthanasia and for assisted suicide to become culturally accepted as an alternative to a drawn out death of dementia in a care home. The quality of life for many (not all) care home residents who are on these sorts of drug regimens is dire and in reality not entirely for their benefit, as is apparent to everyone including those responsible for oversight like Med…

A nursing home around here for dementia runs $10,000 per month.

Same time we hardly pay that per year for k-12. Shows how messed up our priorities are.

Re: Phony diagnoses hide high rates of drugging at nursing homes

#95

Post by andai »

quetzlbazaar wrote: post #87
comrh wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one of the two things every therapist will tell you that can force them to break the confidentiality. That it can take away your freedom, get you institutionalized, remove your ability to make your own medical decisions. It's important to take ideations seriously but as someone who struggled with that at points in my life I never felt completely safe about discuss it.

It makes sense when you consider that the therapist is there to help you but only in a way that does not challenge society. You are right to not feel completely safe to discuss it, unfortunately. I'm not sure why this taboo has evolved to be so strong, though I would guess it runs very deep psychologically in peoples' fear of death and also has something to do with the potential societal implications to any culture w…

>societal implications

I'd expect the quality of a party you're allowed to leave to be higher than one you're not.

Re: Phony diagnoses hide high rates of drugging at nursing homes

#96

Post by lotsofpulp »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #86
BingoAhoy wrote: post #32

Phony Diagnoses not just at nursing homes, also in mental facilities. Was really surprised (better word-traumatized) that one flippant casual mention of not valuing my life in a private text message was enough to to get me detained by police in a facility for a night. "Doctor" threatened me with drugging just because I refused to answer some of their questions and instead insisted on a lawyer. Funny how freedoms can…

Yeah, I've read some incredible stories. Locking the doors behind the patient. Using some tiny remark as cause for involuntary institutionalization. It made me think american psychiatry was like american prisons where they get paid per person and are therefore incentivized to stuff as many people in the building as possible.

All the while I can drive 15 min and find thousands of obviously mentally ill people in need of involuntary mental health treatment (the type perhaps not even available at this point in the US) wandering around and the police cannot do anything about it because their only avenue for detaining them is to wait until they catch them committing a crime. And even then they are shortly released onto their own recognizance if it is anything short of attempted murder.

Re: Phony diagnoses hide high rates of drugging at nursing homes

#97

Post by jokab »

User23 wrote: post #79
heavyset_go wrote: post #2

Antipsychotics are not something to be handed out like candy. They have serious, sometimes permanent and sometimes fatal, side effects in anyone of any age. The article notes how that class of medication increases mortality in elderly people in particular. The fact that some people were prescribed haloperidol as the first line of treatment instead of a newer, safer antipsychotics also blows my mind. I'm terrified of…

> I'm terrified of growing old in this country. This is what convinced me to have as many children as possible. Hopefully at least one of them will care about me enough to not let this sort of thing happen to me.

how many you got?

Re: Phony diagnoses hide high rates of drugging at nursing homes

#98

Post by quetzlbazaar »

prepend wrote: post #92
quetzlbazaar wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution in my opinion to this problem is to permit euthanasia and for assisted suicide to become culturally accepted as an alternative to a drawn out death of dementia in a care home. The quality of life for many (not all) care home residents who are on these sorts of drug regimens is dire and in reality not entirely for their benefit, as is apparent to everyone including those responsible for oversight like Med…

These doctors can’t be trusted to treat patients with Haldol. I certainly don’t trust them to properly administer euthanasia. If they are fabricating schizophrenia dx, then they would also likely to fabricate medical cause for euthanasia.

One option might be to not require a medical cause for assisted suicide. Instead it could be something that people have an absolute right to do for any reason or none, though I do not think most societies would be comfortable with that. Perhaps heavy due process similar to that required in many jurisdictions for a woman wanting to carry out an abortion could be required.

Re: Phony diagnoses hide high rates of drugging at nursing homes

#99

Post by SkyPuncher »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #86
BingoAhoy wrote: post #32

Phony Diagnoses not just at nursing homes, also in mental facilities. Was really surprised (better word-traumatized) that one flippant casual mention of not valuing my life in a private text message was enough to to get me detained by police in a facility for a night. "Doctor" threatened me with drugging just because I refused to answer some of their questions and instead insisted on a lawyer. Funny how freedoms can…

Yeah, I've read some incredible stories. Locking the doors behind the patient. Using some tiny remark as cause for involuntary institutionalization. It made me think american psychiatry was like american prisons where they get paid per person and are therefore incentivized to stuff as many people in the building as possible.

It's less about pay and more about liability. Mental health is terrified that someone will do something to harm themselves.

The incentive systems have yet to realize that there needs to be some balance in bad outcomes to support the good ones. It results in a system where any mention of self-harm is taken extremely seriously, even at the cost of a larger treatment plan.

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