Did You Know: Elderly in long-term care doubt need for mental health problems.
Read more about this study from the Nov. 2009 issue of the Journal of Gerontology....
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News: Move over Zyprexa, Seroquel, trial on Risperdal

News: Ending Medicare hospital cap
Continuing their efforts to end discrimination in Medicare coverage for mental health, Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-MAINE) introduced a bill (S 3028) to end the 190-day lifetime cap on psychiatric hospitalization. . .
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News: Over-use of psychotropic drugs in Chicago nursing homes

Wrongful use of anti-psychotic drugs to quiet annoying patients led to 12 deaths and many accidents in Chicago's nursing homes in recent years, according to an article in a series running in the Chicago Tribune. Calling the series "Compromised Care," the paper is exposing the deplorable services, criminal acts, and dysfunctional monitoring of programs and safety of Illinois nursing home residents. . .
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News: Safety of atypical antipsychotics
Atypical antipsychotic drugs are used widely beyond the original group of mental disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, for which they were initially approved.
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Did You Know: Depression is a risk factor for suicide in the elderly.
Read more from the National Instutitue of Mental Health....
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Did You Know: Suicide rates are highest for people 65 and older.
Read more from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)....
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Did You Know: Suicide rates are highest among those 65 and older.
Statistics available from the National Institute of Mental Health....
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Did You Know: More than 95 % of the elderly receive their mental health services from primary care providers.
Findings from this study published in 1996 are repeated in a 2005 review of psychiatric epidemiology. Registration required to read more....
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News: Antidepressants fall through "doughnut hole"
An analysis of the impact of the "doughnut hole" for seniors with Medicare Part D with chronic illnesses found that "45% of patients on antidepressants reached the coverage gap in 2007." The study is available from the Kaiser Family Foundation....
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News: Parity for Medicare mental health
By an overwhelming majority in both houses, Congress reversed a bias built into the 1965 law for seniors when it overturned a presidential veto of a Medicare bill. It will take six years for the rates to drop from the current 50 percent to the same 20 percent older Americans pay for physical health, but the reversal is a symbolic and a real achievement and was the focus of intense lobbying by advocacy and consumer organizations. In addition to establishing...
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News: Senate stalls vote on copay for seniors' mental health
Tucked into a bill (S 3101) to prevent a reduction in Medicare physician fees by 10.6 percent was a provision to reduce the insurance copay for psychiatric services. It is currently set at 50 percent, a rate that was set in the 1960s, and the proposal was to reduce this to 20 percent, equal to other health costs. The American Psychiatric Association has been advocating an equal fee for seniors, and also to retain reimbursements making it possible for doctors...
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News: Overuse of psychiatric nursing homes
The Hartford Courant reports an excessive number of psychiatric admissions to nursing homes will cost Conn. $6.5 million in Medicaid reimbursements....
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News: Antipsychotics harm dementia patients
Members of Parliament are urging a new policy halting the practice of prescribing psychotropic medicine to nursing home patients with dementia, reports the BBC. A recent study indicated that 70 percent of the prescriptions were inappropriate. When used for patients with dementia, the drugs were associated with rapid deterioration including a loss of verbal skills....
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News: Barriers to meds for elderly
Two studies in the April issue of Psychiatric Services discuss barriers for the elderly taking psychiatric medicines in Canada and the United States. One article, an NIMH-funded study of co-pays in British Columbia between 1997 and 2005, found that copays delayed seniors from obtaining antidepressant medicines. Another study discussed the United States, and the implications of excluding the anti-anxiety benzodiazepines from Medicare Part D....
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News: Schizophrenia studies
The March issue of Psychiatric Services (subscription required) focuses on schizophrenia, including research on antipsychotic drugs, the responsibilities of siblings who increasingly fill a void left by parents, and for the over-55 group which is expected to double in the next twenty years....
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News: Massage replaces medication in elderly
The Wall Street Journal reports that a nursing home for retired Roman Catholic nuns has been able to dramatically cut dispensing antipsychotic medication, often overly prescribed to calm elderly patients, by hiring a massage therapist....
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News: Depresson studies
A study of adolescents in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests switching medicine and adding CBT helps teens for whom an earlier medicine didn't work. Men between 71-89 years old who scored high for elderly depression also had lower concentrations of testosterone. The community study (n=3987) took place in Australia, and findings are reported in the March edition of Archives of General Psychiatry (subscription required). Stroke victims: The American Academy of Neurology published a British study indicating...
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News: Elderly overdosed
The Hartford Courant reports that Connecticut is one of the top four states dispensing antipsychotic medication to elderly nursing home patients having no psychiatric histories....
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News: Bush health plans costly
Sara Rosenbaum writes in the Feb. 27th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (free article) that it is an effort to redefine “the role of government in organizing and overseeing the health care marketplace,” not budget, which has driven Bush health proposals. Her case in point is SCHIP, which she calls the "proxy war," but others are in the news. Today, the New York Times says that another Government Accounting Office report (scheduled for release) will again...
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News: Spouses paid for caregiving
Illinois is considering a bill to allow Medicaid payments to spouses delivering 24-hour, full-time care. "It's really one of those things that just makes sense to do," said one of the bill's proponents....
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News: Seniors pay more for Zoloft
Seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D will pay $369 more for five medications, including Zoloft, according to a study conducted by Consumers Union. Roughly 75 percent of the private insurance plans in Medicare Part D announced hikes for the coming year. Another study released this week, from Annals of Internal Medicine, examined a single pharmacy chain. Results from this national pharmacy indicate out-of-pocket costs had dropped and utilization had increased. Currently, Medicare is prevented from negotiating over price, which Rep....
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News: Dosing elders with antipsychotic meds
Using off-label antipsychotic medication, known for their sedating qualities, to inappropriately quiet elderly patients is coming under fire by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. Roughly one in five of the elderly patients who are being given these medications have no known psychotic condition. In an unrelated story, 54 nursing homes were cited for poor performance by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services....
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News: Open enrollment for Medicare Part D
With six weeks of an open enrollment period to make changes in Medicare Part D coverage beginning Nov. 15, the Kaiser Family Foundation examined 1824 stand alone plans and estimates that premiums are likely to increase an average of 17 percent (for those staying in the same plan), with the top three plans averaging 27 percent. Seniors, and those who advise them, might take note of the October issue of Psychiatric Services which says restrictions in some drug plans under...
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News: Integrated model of primary care
A study appearing in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found that integrating mental health and substance abuse treatments with primary care reduced racial disparities based on access. The conclusions are based on a randomizing 183 elderly patients at a single site....
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News: Mobile Mental Health for Elderly
Researchers at the University of Michigan argue that programs bringing personal services and food to the elderly also deliver mental health services. The Gerontologist (August) reported that of the 19,000 people (65 and older) who were admitted to community based programs in Michigan, 40 percent were being treated with antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications, and another 25 percent warranted an evaluation for depression....
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News: Depression and heart risks
A research team at the University Medical Center in Amsterdam confirms depression is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Their conclusions are based on an analysis of 28 different studies (N=80,000) which appeared in the July issue of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry....
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News: Seniors with mental illness
The Ring (University of Victoria), July-August, 2007 Canadian researchers are launching a study into family caregiving for the elderly. They will compare caregivers to mentally ill seniors with caring for relatives with dementia. About one in eight Canadians is older than 65, and roughly 20 percent of them have a mental disorder....
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News: Medicare Proposes 9.9% physician cut
At the same time the federal government is directing the elderly and disabled into Medicare Advantage, a more costly alternative using HMOs and receiving government funding, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services proposes cutting physician reimbursement. The AMA predicts this will discourage doctors from accepting Medicare patients....
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News: Advocates cheer Colorado’s governor
Rocky Mountain News, May 31, 2007 Colorado’s Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law four bills expanding mental health services helping children and older Americans, including those suffering from substance abuse disorders, anorexia and PTSD. They strengthen programs allowing the elderly to remain in their homes to receive needed services, and increase the numbers of disorders included under mental illnesses....
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Commentary: Meeting the Mental Health Challenges of the Elder Boom

"It's time to make geriatric mental health a front burner issue in America," says advocate Michael B. Friedman. Learn how ageism affects services, surveys and perceptions about what's normal for people over 65 to experience.
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News: Study confirms some drugs harmful to elderly
Off-label use of neuroleptics to calm Alzheimer’s patients with dementia leads to increased mortality, according to a five-year study from the UK....
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