Antidepressants Might Raise Fall Risk in Nursing Homes

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been associated with an increased risk of falls in nursing home residents with dementia, a new investigate finds.Researchers in a Netherlands analyzed data about daily prescription medicine use as well as falls among 248 nursing home residents with dementia. The dataset collected between Jan. 1, 2006 as well as Jan. 1, 2008 included 85,074 person-days.Antidepressants were used on 13,729 days (16 percent), with SSRIs used on 11,105 of these days, a investigators found.A sum of 683 falls were experienced by 152 (61.5 percent) of a 248 nursing home residents, which works out to tumble incidence of 2.9 falls per person-year. Thirty-eight residents had a single tumble but 114 had frequent falls.Injury or death resulted from 220 of a falls: 10 were hip fractures, 11 were alternative types of fractures, as well as 198 were injuries such as sprains, bruises, swelling as well as open wounds. One person died after falling, according to a results.The researchers found that a risk of having an injury-causing tumble was three times higher for residents taking SSRIs than for those who didn't take a antidepressants. For example, a comprehensive daily risk of a tumble was 0.28 percent for an 80-year-old lady taking a daily dose of an SSRI, compared with 0.09 percent for a lady a same age who didn't take an SSRI.Similar increases in risk were found for both women as well as men of different ages, according to a investigate published Jan. 19 in a British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology."Our investigate also detected that a risk of an injurious tumble increased even more if a residents were also given tranquil or sedative drugs as sleeping pills," lead writer Carolyn Shanty Sterke, who works in a section of geriatric medicine during Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, said in a journal news release.Falls have been a vital issue for nursing home residents with dementia, as well as one-third of falls among nursing home residents result in an injury, a investigate authors noted."Staff in residential homes have been always concerned about shortening a chance of people falling as well as I think we should consider developing new treatment protocols that take into account a increased risk of falling that occurs when you give people SSRIs," Sterke said in a news release.While a investigate uncovered an association between injury-causing falls as well as SSRI use, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.More informationThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control as well as Prevention has more about falls in nursing homes.

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