Adjusting medications may reduce fall risk in older adults
The study found that a moderate increase in depressive symptoms among people over 65 was associated with a 30 percent increase in experiencing a fall over the next two years, said Geoffrey Hoffman, research fellow and assistant professor at the U-M School of Nursing. This association appeared, in part, to reflect greater use of psychiatric medications, he said. The study didn't formally measure the impact of medication use on falls, but when psychiatric medication was included in the experimental model, the relationship between falls and depressive symptoms became nonsignificant, he said. "We've pinpointed that we think the relationship between depression and falls involves medication use with important implications for patient safety and fall risk reduction," Hoffman said. "Many interventions to prevent falls are expensive and time-intensive, but this is a simple and inexpensive matter of encouraging continued use of psychiatric medication while improving...