According to an article in today's New York Times, an audit by the Department of Health and Human Services found that “more than half of the antipsychotics paid for by the federal Medicare program in the first half of 2007 were “erroneous,” the audit found, costing the program $116 million for those six months.” These drugs are commonly used to treat the agitation caused by dementia — sometimes to good effect, sometimes not. Unfortunately, some nursing homes use them instead of giving their staff adequate training in behavioral interventions. In some cases, use of antipsychotics have been linked to illegal kickbacks to drug companies.

You can read the HHS audit here.