Chemical restraint is a form of medical restraint in which a drug is used to restrict the freedom or movement of a patient or in some cases to sedate a patient. Medical professionals around the world, including Australia, are treating residents in aged care (including those with dementia) unnecessarily with antipsychotic drugs instead of effectively managing their behavioural and physical symptoms.
Chemical restraints are also referred to as a 'Psychopharmacologic Agent'; Psychotropic Drug. Drugs that are often used as chemical restraints include benzodiazepines,[3] antipsychotics, and Dissociative anesthetics.
A recent report by Alzheimer's Australia - The Use of Restraint and Psychotropic Medication in People with Dementia, provides an evidence-based review of the prevalence of the use of restraint, and the potential negative consequences and legal issues surrounding the use of psychotropic medication and physical restraints in people with dementia.
The report revealed that up to 80% of people with dementia and nearly half of people in residential aged care facilities are receiving psychotropic medications that in some cases are inappropriately prescribed.
Ita Buttrose, the then National President of Alzheimer’s Australia, said that the report raises concerns that in many cases psychotropic medications and physical restraints are the first line of response to the challenging behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD).
Update - May 2015: The wife of one resident overcame enormous obstacles to procure basic information about her husband's medical care in an Australian aged care home. It should not be this difficult to get information:
...Staff gave John an injection of Haloperidol, a powerful anti-psychotic that dropped him to the floor. Afterwards, he was given so-called "chemical restraints" – antipsychotic drugs routinely used to pacify dementia patients in nursing homes ...
... Despite having power of attorney over John's affairs, it took Mrs Sypkens two months to get the nursing home to stop dosing him (with antipsychotics). Only after lodging a Freedom of Information request could she later find out exactly what he had been given ...
Source: Dementia treatment: Stemming the tide of loss - Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 2015
Do residents who experience dementia benefit from anti-psychotic medication?
Aged Care Crisis draws attention to a UK review (November 2009) into the use of anti-psychotic medications which found that the overprescribing of drugs is linked to 1800 deaths a year. The drugs, developed for treating people with schizophrenia, are sometimes used to calm residents with dementia.
The review found that only a fifth of those on sedative medications were receiving any benefit.
November 12, 2009 — Professor Sube Banerjee, author of a review of UK dementia treatment, says up to 150,000 sufferers are prescribed anti-psychotic drugs unnecessarily
Older adults who take several types of psychotropic medications—such as antidepressants or sedatives—appear more likely to experience falls, according to an analysis of previous studies reported in the November 23 2009 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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