Primum non nocere

Doctors Say Medication Is Overused in Dementia

Nevertheless, many doctors say misuse of the drugs is widespread. “These antipsychotics can be overused and abused,” said Dr. Johnny Matson, a professor of psychology at Louisiana State University. “And there’s a lot of abuse going on in a lot of these places.”

Dr. William D. Smucker, a member of the American Medical Directors Association, a group of health professionals who work in nursing homes, agreed. Though the group encourages doctors to conduct a thorough assessment and prescribe antipsychotics only as a last resort, he said, “Many physicians are absent without leave in the nursing home and don’t take an active role in the assessment of the patient.”

One of the biggest problems in our current health care milieu is overuse of medications.  Medications are important and can improve quality and quantity of life.  However, medications clearly have side effects.

We (physicians) have a great responsibility to do no harm.  Each time we prescribe a medication we must consider the probable positives and negatives associated with that medication.  We must consider the medications that the patient is already taking, and possible interactions.

As this article describes, medication should not be our first thought for every problem.  We must always do a risk benefit assessment prior to trying a new medication.  And when we start a new medication, we should always have a time to assess whether that medication is helping the patient.

We must ignore the drug reps who have one goal – selling more of their drug.  We should not blame them for their message, rather we should blame ourselves when we listen to them.