Seton Hall Nursing Professor: Use Medication Properly For Dementia Patients

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The American population over 65 years old is expected to reach 84 million by 2050. This staggering projection is just one of the reasons why it’s so important to stamp out the inappropriate use of anti-psychotic medications in dementia care, a Seton Hall professor says.

Seton Hall University College of Nursing Associate Professor Judith Lucas was among the presenters at a gerontology seminar at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on July 11.

During the seminar, Lucas explained the results of her recent research with colleague John Bowblis of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

“We live is a culture that prescribes medications where we treat everyone similarly, not person-centered,” Lucas said. “We need to individualize care and change the culture in nursing homes.”

Even a modest reduction in these drugs are a benefit to nursing home residents with dementia, saving between 327 to 655 lives per year in addition to potential savings of Medicare spending on antipsychotics, Lucas said.

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Lucas has devoted more than 30 years to issues related to geriatric populations living in community home care, assisted living and nursing homes, according to Seton Hall administrators.

Lucas and Bowblis’s research examined 86,163 nursing home re-certifications in 15,055 unique facilities around the nation between January 1, 2009 to March 31, 2015. The pair wanted to determine if there were changes in the number of deficiencies issued and the prevalence of anti-psychotic use associated with the strategies. They also wanted to examine the prevalence of other psychoactive medications that may be substituted for anti-psychotics to comply with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) efforts.

“We found that recent CMS efforts to reduce anti-psychotic use in nursing homes are starting to have their intended effect,” Lucas summarized.

See the full study here.

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Photo: Seton Hall University