Antipsychotic Drugs: Regulating Their Use in the Private Practice of Medicine

This Comment will address the problems of antipsychotic drug usage in two areas in which the private practice of psychiatry is involved: nursing homes and board and care homes. Although each of these areas present an entirely different set of problems, and concern different age groups, they both serve functions which had traditionally been that of the state hospitals before deinstitutionalization - treating the chronic mentally ill. Before considering the use of antipsychotic medication in nursing homes and board and care homes, the risk of side effects as a result of these drugs will be examined. It will be shown that negligent and even abusive use of these drugs occurs in the private practice of medicine, necessitating some type of medication regulation similar to that which is occurring in the public sector. The rights of doctors will also be addressed in conjunction with the state\u27s authority to intervene in the private practice of medicine