Replacing antipsychotics with anticonvulsants as ‘chemical strait jackets’
In November 2022, the Washington Post reported on this disturbing trend in the United States in nursing homes: Washington Post. Nov 17, 2022. Epilepsy drugs as ‘chemical restraint’ on rise in nursing homes 1
The common use of antipsychotics as chemical restraints or let’s face it, ‘chemical straight jackets’ on the elderly in nursing homes had long been known to occur in the United States, Australia, and probably in several other Western countries.
The Washington Post report found that government attempts to ban indiscriminate use of antipsychotics for elderly dementia patients had resulted in their use being replaced by anticonvulsant medications that could be used for the treatment of epilepsy.
The report suggested that just with antipsychotics, these drugs were being given to the elderly for no medical reasons but to simply make them more pliable and less of a problem to the handlers in the homes.
Antipsychotics: misnamed horse tranquilizers
This data is included here as further evidence of the continued misuse of psychotropic drugs both in the areas of mental health and caring for our elderly citizens.
And specifically in pointing out the fraud of these drugs ever being labeled as ‘antipsychotics’ when they do nothing to address psychosis but are simply and entirely extreme tranquilizers that were originally used on horses and are now used on mental health patients, the elderly, and even children.
Quite a price to pay for psychiatry’s incompetence and collusion with big pharma.
Further references:
3. Psychiatry’s lack of science masked by pharmaceuticals
Antipsychotics – a horrible replacement for even worse alternatives
- Washington Post. Nov 17, 2022. Epilepsy drugs as ‘chemical restraint’ on rise in nursing homes