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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Falls among elderly people are closely associated with drugs, especially sedatives prescribed as sleep aids and medications used to treat mood disorders.
Falling and related complications such as hip fractures are the fifth leading cause of death in the developed world.
Antidepressants showed the strongest statistical association with falling, possibly because older drugs in this class have significant sedative properties. Anti-psychotics and neuroleptics used to treat schizophrenia and other psychoses and benzodiazepines such as valium were also significantly linked to falls.
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"These findings reinforce the need for judicious use of medications in elderly people at risk of falling," principal investigator Carlo Marra, a University of British Columbia (UBC) associate professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, was quoted as saying. "Safer alternatives, such as counseling, shorter-term or less-sedating therapies may be more appropriate for certain conditions."
The UBC study examined the effects of nine classes of drugs. It studied falls among people aged 60 or older from 1996-2007. The analysis included data on more than 79,000 participants and looked at both prescription and over-the-counter medications.
Narcotic painkillers were found not to be statistically associated with falling among the classes studied, a finding that requires further research, said Marra.
Other medication classes studied included anti-hypertensives used to reduce blood pressure, diuretics, beta-blockers used to treat heart conditions, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen. "Elderly people may be more sensitive to drugs' effects and less efficient at metabolizing medications, leading to adverse events, which in turn lead to falls," added Marra.
Researchers found that prescribing medications to seniors has increased substantially over the past decade. The British Columbia Rx Atlas shows that more than one in seven people aged 80 or older filled at least one antidepressant prescription in 2006.
Determining which medication classes are associated with falls remains a challenge since seniors are often on multiple medications for multiple health conditions, with new drugs entering the market on a regular basis.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, November 23, 2009
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