I work in healthcare and it’s already been a policy. The standards of care basically require that we use the lowest dose for the shortest time possible. We have meetings on a regular basis where we’ll review the psychotropic medications the residents are on and see if we can start removing them. Sometimes we find that they can come off and we taper them off without too much issue. Other times it’s a nightmare.
I’m often in two minds regarding this. These medications can have significant side effects so getting people off them isn’t a bad thing. The other side is that a lot of the time they the behaviors and feelings these medications were meant to address end up coming back, but there’s a lot of pressure to just keep them off usually requiring nursing to fight to get them back.
Over the past few years the restrictions on certain psychotropic meds have become a lot stricter in nursing homes. Apparently down in Florida there was some large issue where people were diagnosing people with schizophrenia in order to give out more antipsychotic medications so now there are more restrictions as a result. When I worked on a dementia unit, the restrictions became really frustrating since you’re dealing with psychotropics on a very regular basis. On their face I don’t think they’re bad, but in practice it’s just even more work I’m expected to do when I’m already overworked and understaffed.
![[CW: Medical abuse] This is eugenics. This is evil. This will mess with peoples ability to manage medical conditions and will take away the lifeline to be able to function safely from them.](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/7818ac05-52a2-47d6-9f85-d26b2987db7c.jpeg){kind=link}
I work in healthcare and it’s already been a policy. The standards of care basically require that we use the lowest dose for the shortest time possible. We have meetings on a regular basis where we’ll review the psychotropic medications the residents are on and see if we can start removing them. Sometimes we find that they can come off and we taper them off without too much issue. Other times it’s a nightmare.
I’m often in two minds regarding this. These medications can have significant side effects so getting people off them isn’t a bad thing. The other side is that a lot of the time they the behaviors and feelings these medications were meant to address end up coming back, but there’s a lot of pressure to just keep them off usually requiring nursing to fight to get them back.
Over the past few years the restrictions on certain psychotropic meds have become a lot stricter in nursing homes. Apparently down in Florida there was some large issue where people were diagnosing people with schizophrenia in order to give out more antipsychotic medications so now there are more restrictions as a result. When I worked on a dementia unit, the restrictions became really frustrating since you’re dealing with psychotropics on a very regular basis. On their face I don’t think they’re bad, but in practice it’s just even more work I’m expected to do when I’m already overworked and understaffed.
Not to mention the idea of forcing an elderly person to go through withdrawals with their condition reemerging is horrifying