In facilities across the province, an average of 27 per cent of residents are taking antipsychotics without a matching psychiatric diagnosis, according to the newly updated Residential Care Facilities Quick Facts Directory.
The average percentage has declined in recent years, but B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie says it’s not happening as quickly as it has in other provinces.
“It’s a problem everywhere, but for some reason it is worse in B.C.,” she said.
There are three care homes in B.C. where more than half of residents were taking antipsychotics without a diagnosis of psychosis in 2015-16: Youville Residence (62.6 per cent of residents) and Adanac Park Lodge (52.1 per cent) in Vancouver, and Lynn Valley Care Centre (51.1 per cent) in North Vancouver.
Mackenzie doesn’t subscribe to the theory that care home staff are using antipsychotics to make their charges easier to control. She believes doctors prescribe these medications because they’re trying to control certain symptoms, but the drugs may do more harm than good.
“You will find more aggressive behaviours with higher antipsychotic use,” she said. “There was a brilliant study done in Manitoba: You take them off the antipsychotics, the incidents of aggression went down.”
A lot of these drugs aren’t tested on the elderly either, so care home residents may experience side effects in unexpected ways, which could lead to further problems.
“You give somebody an antipsychotic to treat something that you think is an agitation, you exacerbate the delirium and things get worse. They get drowsy, they trip, they fall,” Mackenzie said.