Have you ever walked through a nursing home and seen elderly patients slumped over, with their heads hanging low? My heart aches to see so many of our golden generation just passing time in a haze before they pass on.
When I discovered that many of these silver-haired saints are being drugged into a stupor, my heartache turned to anger.
The heinous reality is, if nursing homes keep their patients drugged, they stand to reap benefits – perhaps even profits! By keeping the elderly in a permanent stupor, they minimize their need for nursing staff, allowing them to save money on salaries and employee benefits. It is believed that the nursing homes even charge Medicare for the drugs used to place the elderly under their care into the stupor.
Today, taxpayers spend $7 billion a year on antipsychotic drugs under the Medicaid program alone – more than spent on any other medicine – even high-blood-pressure pills! And yet, only a tiny fraction of the population has a condition that would warrant an antipsychotic drug.
Something is badly awry. With only 1 percent of the population having schizophrenia and just another 2 percent suffering from bipolar disorders, why on earth are there more than 45 million prescriptions filled every year for antipsychotic drugs?  
The answer is that, even though at most only 3 percent of the population is in need of antipsychotic drugs, 30 percent of nursing home patients are given them! It is believed that some nursing homes put up to 70 percent of their patients on these powerful drugs, so they won't be bothered to provide real care to those in need.
It may be true that some of the elderly in the nursing homes can be a handful and even disruptive at times. But is that an excuse for drugging so many?
Drugging nursing home patients as a form of "restraint" is so repulsive that in 1987, President Reagan signed a law outlawing it. Yet, the practice is alive and well today.
These powerful drugs are not intended for use with patients who suffer from dementia or other illnesses that many of the elderly face. In fact, in 2005, the FDA issued a "black box" warning that these drugs should not be used for dementia because the drugs would increase the risk of death in these patients.
Given that antipsychotic drugs are given to nursing home patients at more than 10 times the rate of those with psychiatric conditions, it appears that the FDA warning is being totally ignored.
Because the FDA cannot monitor doctors or tell them what to prescribe, doctors can issue prescriptions that go against the warnings of the FDA. As a result, the number of prescriptions doctors write for nursing home patients that do not need them is skyrocketing.
Who stands to gain from this horrific scheme? Certainly the nursing homes do, and citizens should speak up against it.
But what about the pharmaceutical industry? What does it stand to gain or lose? The answer is simple. It is the one reaping astronomical profits. A medication that less than 3 percent of the population needs has gained the top spot for drugs paid for by Medicaid.
Perhaps there is another way to address this problem. Since the pharmaceutical industry is notorious for offering kickbacks or promoting uses for its drugs that are not approved by the FDA, it is worth examining if that is part of the secret to why they sell $7 billion of these drugs to Medicaid recipients.
The government is offering huge rewards to those who can show that a pharmaceutical company is promoting off-label uses for drugs or paying kickbacks. If you know of any specific instances of a pharmaceutical company engaging in this practice, such as in the nursing home context for antipsychotic drugs, then stand up and report it. You just might be standing up for someone who cannot even lift his or her head without your help. Achieving that certainly warrants a significant monetary reward.
 Original Source