The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7437 p126
3 February 2007

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Stopping fall-inducing drugs halves risk of falls in elderly

Withdrawing certain drugs can halve the risk of old people falling, research suggests (British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 2007;63:232).

Dutch investigators assessed the fall incidents of 139 patients over 65 years of age, with a history of falling, 75 of whom had fall-risk-increasing drugs discontinued or their doses reduced (the intervention group) at an outpatient clinic.

The intervention resulted in an overall reduction in falls within a two-month follow-up, compared with in patients whose treatment was not changed (hazard ratio 0.48, 95 per cent confidence interval 0.23–0.99). The effect was more pronounced for the reduction or discontinuation of fall-risk-increasing cardiovascular drugs (hazard ratio 0.35, CI 0.15–0.82).