One of America’s most popular drugs — first aimed at schizophrenia — reveals the issues of ‘off-label’ use

The first warning came a dozen years ago, when the Food and Drug Administration accused the drug company AstraZeneca of “false or misleading” information about health risks in the marketing material for its blockbuster medication Seroquel, an antipsychotic developed to treat schizophrenia but increasingly prescribed “off label” for insomnia.

What followed was an onslaught of litigation by state attorneys general, who charged AstraZeneca with fraudulently promoting Seroquel for unapproved uses, and by individual patients, who claimed that it had failed to alert consumers about some of the drug’s most pernicious side effects. Although the company never admitted wrongdoing, by the end of 2011 it had paid out more than $1 billion to settle many of the cases.

Another product might have been derailed, but not Seroquel. Despite generic competition and lingering lawsuits, AstraZeneca’s annual reports show Seroquel remained a blockbuster, with $3.6 billion in sales from 2014 to 2016. In the drug’s titanic success and its strong link to off-label prescribing lies a cautionary tale — about the sometimes conflicting forces within health care, the relationship between medications and marketing, and the limits of regulatory protections.

Full Article and Source:
One of America’s most popular drugs — first aimed at schizophrenia — reveals the issues of ‘off-label’ use

Tonight on T. S. Radio: Is Mass Murder Happening in Montgomery County, PA?

5:00 pm PST … 6:00 pm MST … 7:00 pm CST … 8:00 pm EST
Guests: Coz Whitten-Skaife, Mary Whitten and other family members.

This is a show you do not want to miss!

Pennsylvania appears to be about to exceed Florida and Tennessee in its abuse of the elderly by corrupt probate courts, for-profit guardians, unethical attorney's and their constant companions...the participating nursing homes.

In what has to be one of the most extreme cases of probate abuse with the intent to exploit the estate, Harvey Whitten is that case. Highly educated and successful, Harvey became a prime target for the predators in Montgomery County, PA due to a stroke. Harvey never had a chance to recover. F. Harvey Whitten who suffered from vascular dementia, was being chemically restrained with Haldol.

This was done without the family's knowledge. Haldol is not appropriate for use on those over 60, nor those with dementia. F. Harvey Whitten is a veteran of the Korean War, and now a victim of Montgomery County Orphans (probate) court. Deborah Klock, a nurse, was named to replace Harvey's companion who had passed away, as co-guardian on November 16, 2012 by Judge Stanley Ott, of the Orphan’s Court of Montgomery County. Ott dismissed Whitten’s request for his own counsel and ordered Diane Zabowski to act as his counsel and it was she who named Nurse Klock as co-guardian.

Both Mary and Coz told RebelPundit that Klock exhibited problems right away. Mary Whitten especially has written numerous complaints against Klock in which she alleges: Klock impersonated a family member, made herself the emergency contact, and changed the medication without notifying the family. The Whitten family fought a long and bitter battle to save their uncle from the ravages of the probate system.

LISTEN to the show live or listen to the archive later

See Also:
NASGA - Harvey Whitten, Pennsylvania Victim

Antipsychotics Found to Harm Hospice Patients With Delirium

A February 16, 2017 article in Neurology Today takes aim at the harmful misuse use of antipsychotic drugs to treat symptoms of delirium for patients receiving hospice care.

The article, "Antipsychotics Found Ineffective for Patients with Delirium in Palliative Care", is centered on a recent study in which Haldol and Risperdal were found to worsen delirium and increase mortality when given to hospice patients. Patients given a placebo fared better. The authors conclusion: “Antipsychotic drugs should not be added to manage specific symptoms of delirium that are known to be associated with distress in patients receiving palliative care who have mild to moderately severe delirium.” Non-pharmacological approaches were recommended.

 Source:
Antipsychotics Found to Harm Hospice Patients With Delirium

Nursing Home Patients With Alzheimer's Drugged to Death

Despite strict government warnings and national initiatives cracking down on administering antipsychotic drugs to older people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, dangerous abuses persist. The practice is particularly pernicious when it occurs in nursing homes, behind closed doors, where the most vulnerable residents are rarely informed or allowed to give meaningful consent before being drugged.

The Center for Medicare Advocacy, a nonprofit law organization, recently issued an alert after analyzing the continued overuse of antipsychotics in nursing homes. It found that in 2016, more than 270,000 nursing home residents are still being liberally drugged with them even though the overwhelming majority of them have not been diagnosed with any type of psychosis. The Center decried it as elder abuse and “a national scandal.”

Nursing home residents are medicated in alarming degrees with alarming doses of anti-depressants, anti-anxieties, antipsychotics, sedatives, and hypnotics—all belonging to the family of “psychoactive” drugs, also called anti-psychotics, psychotropics, or psychotherapeutics. Whatever their label, they work on the brain in various ways to change a person’s mood, behavior, or personality. Most of them also decrease the level of consciousness, acting as a type of “chemical restraint.”

While there are justifiable and therapeutic uses for these drugs, particularly for individuals with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, they’re frequently misused and abused in nursing homes, where a majority of the residents are prescribed one or more of them, usually to calm those who are agitated or combative—and considered problematic patients.

But the powerful drugs, acting alone and in interaction with other drugs, have a long list of common side effects—including tremors, anxiety, confusion, insomnia, immobility, delirium, kidney and heart failure, and violent behavior. Another common effect, oversedation, often greatly increases the risks of falls and fractures. And in some people, those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, psychoactive drugs can even cause death.

Ignoring the Warnings
The risk is so real that in 2005, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued warnings to prescribers and distributors and then imprinted the drugs with one of its rare black box warnings.

It states:
*Elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with conventional or atypical antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death.
*Antipsychotic drugs are not approved for the treatment of dementia-related psychosis.

Furthermore, there is no approved drug for the treatment of dementia-related psychosis. Healthcare professionals should consider other management options.

Perversely, however, the use of such drugs in care facilities actually increased after the FDA’s dire warning.

Full Article and Source:
Nursing Home Residents With Alzheimer's Drugged to Death

Tonight on T.S. Radio: Scott Kiley & State Sponsored Abduction & Kidnap of His Mother

Scott Kiley joins thew show to discuss the state sanctioned kidnapping of his mother, forcing her into a guardianship which Scott describes as "state sanctioned abduction, kidnapping, hostage-taking".

"Professional fiduciary James Moore was called in by the hospital, conducting an "interview" with my mother while she was massively drugged after hip surgery. It was Moore who "diagnosed" my mother with dementia."

Moore keeps my mother heavily drugged and confined to her bed. My mom is in grave danger now of prescription drug toxic poisoning and early premature death. I need to undo that to prevent permanent conservatorship by Moore on March 17th and literally SAVE HER LIFE!

Mercy Hospital in Sacramento seems to have a pattern, practice, custom of medical malpractice, medical misdiagnosis of calling physically infirm sane people who are elderly,"insane", so that in conjunction with state, county officials, money can be made by lawyers, judges and professional fiduciaries, to steal people's lives, monies, bankrupting them, destroying families and making them homeless in so doing."

5:00 pm PST … 6:00 pm MST … 7:00 pm CST … 8:00 pm EST

LISTEN to the show live or listen to the archive later

Anti Depressant Drugs Can Cause Violent Behavior

By Kelly Patricia O’Meara
September 22, 2015

That’s what mainstream press such as the LA Times and Reuters are reporting, based on a new study published in a respected medical journal, PLOS Medicine, which found young adults between the ages of 15-24, were nearly fifty percent more likely to be convicted of a homicide, assault, robbery arson, kidnapping, sexual offense and other violent crime when taking the antidepressant than when they weren’t taking the psychiatric drug.

To have heavy-hitters like theLos Angeles Times cover the issue is precedent setting, as the link between psychiatric drugs and violence has long been ignored by mainstream press. But the fact thatantidepressants cause violenceisn’t a new revelation as the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has been at the forefront of exposing this connection for nearly two decades.

CCHR’s efforts to expose the link between violence and antidepressants goes back to 1991 when CCHR helped organize hearings before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where victims and experts gathered to testify that Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) cause not only suicide but violence, including homicide.

The testimony by parents, about the violent self-inflicted deaths of their young children, was gut-wrenching. Yet, despite overwhelming data provided by experts, and the first-hand accounts of suicide and violence caused by antidepressants, the FDA Advisory Committee, many of which had financial conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical companies, refused to warn the public of the link between suicide and antidepressants, and did not provide any consideration of whether the antidepressants may be responsible for other violent behavior.

Source:  

New Study Confirms What CCHR Has Said For Decades:  Antidepressants Cause Violence

Tonight on T.S. Radio: Marian Hollingsworth: Medical Abuse of My Father and Becoming a Patient Advocate

Hosted by Marti Oakley & Debbie Dahmer

 My father, Keith Blair, went into the hospital in July of 2009 for diagnosis of back pain. Without our knowledge or consent, he was given a cocktail of Risperdal, Haldol, Ativan, Tylenol with codeine, and Morphine.

When I asked the doctor about this, he said it was just "hospital delirium," Sent to a nursing home, my father was given more antipsychotic drugs, along with double doses of AmbienCR, the long acting version of the drug. He ended up with the bad side effects of these black box drugs such as heart trouble, severe dehydration and kidney trouble, and sudden diabetes. He also contracted a MRSA eye infection which spread to his lungs, fell 7 times in 12 days and developed a bedsore. (He was only in the nursing home 18 days.) He ended up a second hospital due to heart and kidney problems, where the same nursing home doctor treated him.)

At the second hospital, he was given daily Risperdal, and we were told to prepare for his death. When I went through the records later, I discovered that a cardiologist said he was improving and that he could be released to the nursing home in a few days.

 2. How to get ALL the records.

 3. Your rights in a hospital or nursing home as a patient or family member. Know the codes in your state so you can use them. if needed, if facilities try to violate these rights. 3. Dealing with the health department for complaints. Your rights in a complaint. The complaint in my father's case resulted in a new policy from the health department, AFL 1108. It mandates that nursing homes must verify that patients on antipsychotic drugs being transferred from hospitals have informed consent forms in their records, and if not, that informed consent must be obtained before the drugs can be given. 4. Dealing with the medical board for complaints.

  LISTEN to the show live or listen to the archive later

Effects of Psychiatric Drugs

These psychiatric drugs are not of small risk but instead cause massive changes in the way the brain functions. Long term studies have indicated that there are severe debilitating and sometimes fatal effects of these drugs. Possible negative effects were minimized or not even discussed at all. There are risks of long term psychological harm, physical harm, social harm and economic harm. Many of these drugs cause symptoms that can themselves be construed as mental illness.The probability of developing Parkinsons’ like symptoms is also great.  

NIDS - Neuroleptic Induced Deficit Syndrome:  
Neuroleptic Induced Deficit Syndrome (NIDS) can be caused by these medications which change in emotional awareness, sense of aliveness, and in the speed, and clarity of thought. The treatment effects felt by many people who have taken these medications are described as feeling like a zombie. Neuroleptic effect is present when the following features are observed:

1. Psychomotor Retardation – motor slowing, body not moving so well
2. Emotional indifference - not being emotionally responsive / not caring
3. Reduced initiative – not showing interest in initiating activity
4. Slowing of thought

As the dose of the medication increases, and more time elapses, it appears that the effects change – from sedative effects, into anti-psychotic effects, and possibly into other less desirable side effects; akathisia (restless leg syndrome), emotional parkinsonism (emotional blunting) and on into some other unwanted side effects. It is not uncommon when the first symptoms appear like apathy, emotional indifference, motor slowing or slow mentation that these were attributed to the underlying condition of the patient (the patient’s disease) when really they are the effects of the medication itself. A patient on these medications can initially demonstrate an improvement in symptoms only to later over time have that initial improvement go away or to only reach a certain point and then plateau or level off. There is also one more important one effect: neuroleptic dysphoria – which is like depression. When this happens when patients are often given even higher dosages of the drugs, leading to even more severe effects.

Many of the symptoms that are used to justify hospital treatment may actually be caused by the psychiatric medications given. So continuation of these medications only creates a self-filling prophecy that furthers the financial goals of the hospital institution and may cause further permanent brain damage.

The Real Truth about Outcomes on Psychiatric Medications

These  drugs, over time, produce these results:
a) They increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically ill.
b) They cause a host of debilitating side effects.
c) They lead to early death.  (Continue Reading)

Full Article & Source:
Effects of Psychiatric Drugs

Chemical Restraints: Anti-psychotic meds given to elderly despite warnings

45 area nursing homes rate below average for the use of antipsychotic drugs

It's estimated one out of every three elderly nursing home residents diagnosed with dementia is prescribed antipsychotic medication. That's according to studies by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Government Accountability Office. The drugs continue to be given to older adults in the facilities despite FDA warnings over the past decade that certain types of the drugs can be deadly.

Marisa Conover, of Fair Oaks, said her mother Genine Zizzo was given antipsychotic medication at a nursing home in 2012, even though she was promised the drug would not be used to treat Zizzo.

As documented in a coroner's investigative report, Conover also said she thinks the drugs contributed to her mom's death just 12 days after she was admitted to Roseville Point Health and Wellness Center.

That investigative report, as well as medical records from Kaiser, said Zizzo went into Roseville Point needing physical therapy after she fell at her home. The report goes on to say Zizzio left less than two weeks later after slipping into a "vegetative state" and then a "coma." Zizzo's death certificate reports she had "multiple organ failures."


Fighting for Change

A Sacramento County elders rights watchdog group, largely funded by private donations, said its seen cases like this before. Carole Herman's Foundation Aiding the Elderly represents nursing home abuse and neglect victims.

Carole Herman 

Herman has accumulated a 20-foot by 20-foot storage room full of cases since she founded the non-profit in 1982. She said medicare and medicaid pay for a vast majority of all nursing home treatment for the elderly.

"Our tax dollars are what's paying for this shoddy care," Herman said. "And for making all of these nursing home operators very wealthy."

The antipsychotic drugs are classified as heavy tranquilizers and have been linked to heart failure, according to the FDA. The agency placed a warning label on the drug Haldol. That's the same medication that Roseville Point injected into Zizzo.  (Continue Reading)

Full Article & Source:
Chemical Restraints: Anti-psychotic meds given to elderly despite warnings

Know the Signs of Elder Abuse: Gerald's Story

Source:
YouTube: MyMovie1

Guardianship Abuse Spreads to Pennsylvania Part 2

by  Michael Volpe

When F. Harvey Whitten was a medic in the Korean War, he held dying soldiers in his arm so they wouldn’t die alone, now at the behest of the Montgomery County (Pennsylvania) Orphans Court and its main players- Judge Stanley Ott and Diane Zabowski- Whitten is headed toward that very fate.

Harvey, a long term advertising executive, is worth millions if not tens of millions.  Harvey is also gay and was in a long term relationship with Robert Sprau.

In 2010,  Harvey Whitten had a stroke and was diagnosed with vascular dementia causing some of Whitten’s nieces and nephews to petitioned the court to have Harvey Whitten guardianized and the case wound up in front of Judge Stanley Ott, of the Orphan’s Court of Montgomery County. Like in the previous case involving Jannie Myers, Ott eschewed Whitten’s request for his own counsel and ordered Diane Zabowski to act as his counsel.

During a fact finding interview with Zabowski, Coz remembers that Zabowski was fixated for most of the duration of the interview on Harvey being gay and at one point remarked that the Whitten family was one of the most dysfunctional she’d known.

In fact, both Mary and Coz say their family is far from dysfunctional and the charge was absurd and provocative.

A long protracted family legal fight was avoided, when Harvey Whitten was declared incapacitated and Coz and Robert Sprau agreed to be the guardian and co-guardian on August 11, 2011. Harvey Whitten went to live with Sprau at his retirement home at the  Shannondell in Audobon Pennsylvania. The Shannondell is considered among the most magnificent retirement communities in the country. Univest Bank was made guardian of the estate and their employee Julianna Van Duyne-King was the point person because Judge Ott had worked with her before.

In 2012 Sprau developed an aggressive lung cancer and passed away on September 22, 2012, but not before handpicking the aides who would be with Harvey twenty four hours a day while he continued living in Shannondell.

Zabowski then lobbied to have Deborah Klock, a nurse, to replace Sprau as co-gaurdian on November 16, 2012.

Both Mary and Coz told RebelPundit that Klock exhibited problems right away. Mary Whitten especially has written numerous complaints against Klock in which she alleges: Klock impersonated a family member, made herself the emergency contact, and changed the medication with notifying the family.

The change in medications done behind the family’s back, say Mary and Coz, caused Harvey to have a psychotic break at the end of 2012. He began experiencing various ailments and outbursts went from Shannondell to three hospitals in January 2013, before winding up in the Meadows at the beginning of February 2013; the Meadows is a psychiatric unit for especially difficult cases also located within the Shannondell confines only unlike the rest of the place, this portion is much like something from One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest.

Full Article & Source:
Guardianship Abuse Spreads to Pennsylvania Part 2

See Also:
Guardianship Abuse Spreads to Pennsylvania

Boomers Beware of Guardianship Abuse

Harvey Whitten, Pennsylvania Victim

FDA Black Box Warnings: Atypical Antipsychotics

What do they mean for the consumer?

WARNING!
WARNING!
WARNING!


Read about name brands: Zyprexa, Risperdal, Seroquel, Geodon, Ability, Invega and more, (and their generics as well).

Medical Report Suggests Antipsychotics Too Often Overprescribed to Elderly Dementia Patients

"In a new report, it seems that antipsychotic drugs are far too often prescribed, particularly to elder dementia patients (ie Alzheimer’s disease) in nursing homes.

Republican Senator Susan Collins, of Maine, is the chairwoman for the Senate Special Committee on Aging. She says, “The report raises many red flags concerning the potential misuse and excessive use of antipsychotic drugs for patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”

Federal investigators comment that Medicare officials need to take immediate action in order to reduce not only the prevalence of these issues but also the ignorance of them....

Nursing home trade group, The American Health Care Association also comment that antipsychotic drugs do have some benefit for some patients with dementia. Those who suffer hallucinations or delusions, for example, could find great relief, but it is important to monitor use to make sure that they are not overprescribed and not used inappropriately.

The AHCA comments, “Antipsychotic drugs are expensive, costing hundreds of millions of Medicare dollars. They also increase the risk of death, falls with fractures, hospitalizations and other complications.”

The study indicates that several antipsychotic medications may be overprescribed—not just one or two in particular. This could include: Risperdal, Clozapine, Zyprexa, and Abilify."  as reported at Pioneer News

Full Article & Source:
Medical Report Suggests Antipsychotics Too Often Overprescribed to Elderly Dementia Patients

Tonight on T.S. Radio: Gerald's Story: Nursing Home and Drug Abuse of an Elderly Man

Patrice Gilgan joins us this evening to expose the abuse and drugging of her father at the hands of doctors and nursing home workers in two different facilities in Orange County, California. 

The first instance of abuse both physical and with drugs occurred at Irvin Cottage Board and Care where Gerald had been sent to recover from brain surgery.  Gerald was drugged within 24 hours of admittance to the home with massive doses of Haldol, Seroqel and overdosed on morphine.  There was no prescription for the morphine.  Cottage Board and Care is operated by St Joseph Hospice, a Catholic enterprise.

At a second facility, Villa Valencia Skilled Nursing, (a St Michael Hospice and another Catholic owned  enterprise), Gerald was given 7 different drugs.  None of these drugs were to be used on brain injured or individuals suffering from dementia.  When Gerald was finally freed from this facility and hospitalized again, it took more than two weeks for him to respond due to the massive drug overload in his system.

Videos of Gerald, and of some of the abuse he endured are available on the you tube channel;  Ireland Dallas.

Gerald Gilgan was a retired New York City Fire Fighter. 

This man did not deserve this callous treatment.  No one does.  Yet it happens to the elderly every day here in the US.

7:00 EST

LISTEN LIVE or listen to the archive later

See Also:
Drugging Dementia:  Are Antipsychotics Killing Nursing Home Patients?

Elder Abuse Caught on Tape

R.I.P. Dad - Justice Will be Served

Elder Abuse Caught on Tape

Warning - this video is very difficult to watch.  Please watch it anyway. Awareness is key to reform!

From Gerald's family:  "GERALD had dementia. GERALD had surgery to remove a brain tumor but his long-term prognosis was not good. He recovers well and post-surgery video shows he is alert and oriented and physically pretty robust. GERALD moves to a Board & Care Facility in Mission Viejo, Ca where his brother is already a resident.

The video shows within days of his admission GERALD has been drugged near the point of unconsciousness and has a fall and is treated horribly by the facility staff.

GERALD eventually had to be sent to the hospital to clear up from his drug-induced haze. From the hospital, GERALD goes to a nursing home where he is again over drugged and has to be hospitalized for an overdose.

In both the Board & Care home, GERALD had hospice care.

Both hospice agencies were sold to the family as an extra set of helping hands but it turned out to be a wall of pain and psych meds. The second hospice company had GERALD on seven (!) psych drugs.

GERALD has passed and all findings of wrongdoing from all the relevant licensing agencies reports are in.

There are many issues, from the caretakers in the video are still working in another facility. The issue we have is the MASSIVE drugging by hospice and caretakers. We are convinced the main goal of care was not quality of life or even palliation. The main goal of care appears to be GERALD'S DEATH.

We want to bring awareness so this doesn't happen to any other person.

GERALD retired 2 times. He was a LT NYFD ladder 149 engine 284, he also was a special advent for the Dept of Defense. He also served his Country. Army"

Source:
Elder Abuse Caught on Tape

R.I.P. Dad, Justice Will Be Served

My father was the victim of being overly drugged in nursing facilities using psychotropic drugs, and antipsychotic medication, RIP GERALD.


Source:
RIP Dad, Justice Will Be Served

Psychiatric Drug Overuse Is Cited by Federal Study

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators say they have found evidence of widespread overuse of psychiatric drugs by older Americans with Alzheimer’s disease, and are recommending that Medicare officials take immediate action to reduce unnecessary prescriptions.

The findings will be released Monday by the Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress, and come as the Obama administration has already been working with nursing homes to reduce the inappropriate use of antipsychotic medications like Abilify, Risperdal, Zyprexa and clozapine. But in the study, investigators said officials also needed to focus on overuse of such drugs by people with dementia who live at home or in assisted living facilities.

The Department of Health and Human Services “has taken little action” to reduce the use of antipsychotic drugs by older adults living outside nursing homes, the report said. Doctors sometimes prescribe antipsychotic drugs to calm patients with dementia who display disruptive behavior like hitting, yelling or screaming, the report said. Researchers said this was often the case in nursing homes that had inadequate numbers of employees.

Dementia is most commonly associated with a decline in memory, but doctors say it can also cause changes in mood or personality and, at times, agitation or aggression. Experts have raised concern about the use of antipsychotic drugs to address behavioral symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. The Food and Drug Administration says antipsychotic drugs are often associated with an increased risk of death when used to treat older adults with dementia who also have psychosis.

Senator Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the report showed that “many seniors with dementia are receiving risky mind-altering medications,” financed in many cases by taxpayers and the Medicare program.

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and chairwoman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, who with Mr. Carper requested the study, said, “The report raises many red flags concerning the potential misuse and excessive use of antipsychotic drugs for patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”

Toby S. Edelman, who represents patients as a lawyer at the Center for Medicare Advocacy, said, “We could save money and provide better care if nursing homes reduced the inappropriate use of antipsychotic drugs.”

A Chicago psychiatrist pleaded guilty last month to taking illegal kickbacks of nearly $600,000 to prescribe an antipsychotic drug for his patients. The doctor, Michael J. Reinstein, also agreed to pay $3.79 million to the federal government and the State of Illinois to settle a lawsuit asserting that he had been involved in the submission of at least 140,000 false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. Law enforcement officials said he had prescribed clozapine for thousands of older and indigent mentally ill patients at 30 nursing homes and other sites.

The lawsuit said drug companies had paid kickbacks, consulting fees and entertainment expenses for Dr. Reinstein as part of an effort to induce him to write prescriptions for clozapine.

Last March, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries and a subsidiary, IVAX Pharmaceuticals, agreed to pay $27.6 million to settle allegations that they had violated federal and state False Claims Acts by making payments to Dr. Reinstein.

Investigators from the Government Accountability Office said in 2011 that Medicare officials were doing little to monitor the use of prescription drugs by Medicare patients. But Medicare also designates antipsychotic medications as one of six “protected classes,” meaning that drug insurance plans must cover all or substantially all drugs in that therapeutic class.

The American Health Care Association, a trade group for nursing homes, says antipsychotic drugs can help some patients with dementia who have hallucinations or delusions, but it has supported efforts to reduce their inappropriate use.

“Antipsychotic drugs are expensive, costing hundreds of millions of Medicare dollars,” the association says. “They also increase the risk of death, falls with fractures, hospitalizations and other complications.”

Full Article & Source:
Psychiatric Drug Overuse Is Cited by Federal Study

Tonight on T.S. Radio: America's Elderly - Drugging, Shock Treatments and Other Abuses in the System

Join us as Bruce Wiseman, U.S. President of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, talks with us this evening about the hidden abuse of America's elderly as they fall prey to a system used to exploit, experiment and abuse them. Drugging with psychotropic drugs, chemical restraints and electroshock await those who do not submit voluntarily... to forced isolation, and the theft of their assets. The elderly are also used for experimentation with vaccines, drugs and untested therapies. This could happen to your mom, your dad or ......you.

Bruce Wiseman:
Bruce Wiseman is the U.S. President of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. He has testified before bodies of both houses of the United States Congress, as well as state legislative and judicial bodies in Colorado, Arkansas, New Jersey, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Florida. He has also testified before the Food and Drug Administration; the President's Commission on Mental Health; the President's Commission to Reform Special Education; and the National Institute of Mental Health’s Consensus Conference on ADHD. He has made more than 800 radio and television appearances including CNN, Fox National News, NBC's Dateline and The Montel Williams show, and has been quoted in print media across the country, including The New York Times. He has a Master’s Degree, Summa Cum Laude, in American History from the California State University at San Jose, and is the former Chairman of the Department of History of John F. Kennedy University. Mr. Wiseman is the author of the compelling book, Psychiatry: The Ultimate Betrayal and for five years hosted the acclaimed, nationally syndicated radio show, Take America Back.

4:00 pm PST … 5:00 pm MST … 6:00 pm CST … 7:00 pm EST

LISTEN LIVE or listen to the archive later

John Walters, Thanksgiving in Abiding Care

Source:
John Walters Thanksgiving in Abiding Care 2013

On John Walters:

John Walters is under conservatorship with the Santa Barbara Public Guardian. In 2014 he was living in a terrible board and care home named Abiding Care where he spent all day alone in bed in his room. The food was of inferior nutrition. He couldn't hear well, and wasn't given a hearing aid. 

After I visited John Walters on Thanksgiving of 2013, a court investigator report came out that damned his son Adam's chances of taking care of his father and being his conservator.

The report stated that John's care manager, a person hired by the Public Guardian, said that on Thanksgiving I brought in matches to burn off his warts, and that he didn't have any. It also stated that she said I was screaming. In that report she is also purported to say that Adam is only interested in his father's money.

These reports are taken seriously by the judge, and at the time no-one from the Public Guardian's office who was responsible for John's welfare tried to counter this report. Also, this care manager did not contest the accuracy of the report.

In February 2018 I received a call from the care manager., She asked me to take down the post about her at NASGA. as it was inaccurate and hurting her reputation. She informed me the investigator's report that the post was based on was inaccurate, that she never said those horrible things about Adam or me, that it was instead a woman working at Abiding Care, Velma, who said those things. She also told me she would write a letter to the proper agency to counter this inaccurate and damning report.

After talking to the care manager, I  believe this report is inaccurate and malicious. But it is important as it sealed John Walter's fate. 

At the time I was shocked that the Public Guardian's office would hire someone who would make up such wild stories. I contacted the Public Guardian's office and it was claimed she didn't work for the Guardian. I contacted other local government agencies, and no-one had information on her. Finally, a representative of the Public Administrator, Kim, left a message on my answering machine that this care manager worked for John. This didn't make a lot of sense because John's under conservatorship, and doesn't have power to hire anyone. Finally, under pressure, the head of the Public Guardian's office, Arlene Diaz, admitted to me that its office was responsible for her position and paid her with John's money.

After Adam and I made quite a stink about John's situation, spoke at the Board of Supervisors, and I got an article published in the Santa Barbara News Press on the Public Guardian, John was eventually moved to another facility named Mission Villa. Owner Dana Newquist takes pride that he serves an all organic diet, and had written an article in the Montecito Journal about health improvements of his residents.

It took more time than it should have for the Public Guardian to get John out of Abiding Care, and into a better facility. The owner of Abiding Care also owns Peppers in Montecito, where Harry Olson suffered a terrible fate--he was drugged up with antipsychotics, and allowed to fall repeatedly--eventually he died. Was this allowed to happen because he was running out of money (see attached article)? 

Despite being in a better place, John is apparently so drugged up that you can't have a conversation with him. Call his son Adam at (805) 448-2615 to find out more.

Please call Harry Hagen, the Santa Barbara Public Guardian, at (805) 568-2920(or email him at Hhagen@co.santa-barbara.ca.us) and ask him to allow John Walters to have a hearing aid. Also ask him to have his office stop targeting and being mean to family members. Ask his office to lay off the antipsychotic drugs, to try natural alternatives, and to choose better doctors. Adam had taken his father to see a holistic doctor named Dr. Saunders, M.D., and Dr. Saunders said the drugs John was under were very harmful, that there were alternatives. As a result of Adam seeking a second opinion for his dad, Adam was targeted, and not allowed to take him out anymore. Please ask the Public Guardian to respect family members, and honor their choice for a second opinion. If you live in Santa Barbara County, tell Harry Hagan, an elected official (also public administrator and tax collector), that you won't vote for him unless John Walters and other elders get better treatment.

There are alternatives to drugs. Please refer to Mahatma Ghandi's autobiography. In it he is adamantly opposed to drugs, and talks about the side effects.. He does, however, believe in natural methods and God's healing power.

Thank you for your help,
~Bryan Rosen

Tonight on T.S. Radio: Minnesotta is No Exception - Medicating the Elderly to Death

Tonight’s guest documents the use of neuroleptics (psychotropic) drugs on her aging mother and the adverse reactions these drugs cause.

Finding her self powerless to stop the over-prescribing of dangerous drugs administered to her mother she has had to witness the massive changes in personality and functionality these drugs cause.  The obvious disregard for the overall health and safety of her mother has been discarded in favor of massive doses of mind altering medications.  While no one can explain why any individual would need such massive doses of multiple drugs, absolutely no one who could intervene and stop this slow death by medication, has done so.

The sheer number of drugs administered to her elderly mother cannot be explained away as proper medical care.  Could it be that someone is getting paid for each drug administered?  Is there an ulterior motive here that has nothing to do with the health and well being of this aging lady?

Listen in this evening and you decide.

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