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MarketWatch – Opinion: Nursing homes may start sedating your elderly parents — and, eventually, you — because they don’t have enough workers – Staffing levels ‘significantly impact’ the use of antipsychotic medication, new research has found By Brett Arends Last Updated: July 12, 2025 at 12:44 p.m. ET First Published: July 11, 2025 at 3:18 p.m. ET It’s long been known that some or many understaffed nursing homes have resorted to the use of antipsychotic medications, typically meaning sedatives and tranquilizers, to make up for a shortage of staff. A U.S. Senate subcommittee reported as long ago as 1975 on this abuse of medications as a way to keep residents docile and easy to manage. A recent study suggested that nearly one resident in four is being medicated in this way. Some nursing-home operators have responded to increased oversight by exploiting regulatory loopholes, critics also argue. This includes diagnosing more residents with conditions such as schizophrenia, where the use of antipsychotics draws less scrutiny, they say. But look on the bright side. Based on the evidence of recent decades, including during the pandemic, hardly anybody outside of a nursing home really cares what happens to the people inside. They figure it won’t happen to them, anyway. It will only happen to other people.