Depressing drugs can cause falls

Friday, 20 January 2012

Anti-depressants given to pensioners suffering from dementia can cause them to fall over and injure themselves, scientists have claimed.

Patients suffering from depression and dementia are frequently prescribed serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to help their conditions. But a report in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology claims the risk of sustaining injuries from falls while taking the medication was tripled.

It was hoped that newer SSRI-drugs would reduce falls in older people taking anti-depressants compared to older medications already proven to increase risk. However, recent research from Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam worryingly shows this has not happened. In the research, Dr Carolyn Sterke recorded the daily drug use and number of falls in 248 nursing home residents over two years.

Of the patients - who were aged around 82 - 152 of them suffered a total of 683 falls, with 220 resulting in injuries including hip fractures and other broken bones. One patient died following a fall. The risk of having a fall that would cause injury was three times higher in residents taking SSRIs compared with those not taking the drug. This rose even higher if the patient was also being treated with sedative drug.

Dr Sterke said the higher risks needed to be taken into account when assessing whether anti-depressants were required in older patients. She said: "Physicians should be cautious in prescribing SSRIs to older people with dementia, even at low doses."

Professor Clive Ballard, from the Alzheimer's Society, said it was "worrying" that the commonly prescribed anti-depressants were causing an increased risk. He said: "It is important to highlight any aspect of care that might be causing risk to a person with dementia. "We want to ensure that people with the condition are always receiving the best care possible.

"More research is now needed to understand why this anti-depressant is having this effect on people with dementia and if there is an alternative treatment for depression that they could be prescribed. "One in three people over 65 will die with dementia yet research into the condition continues to be drastically underfunded. We must invest now.'"