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Some of the world's most common drugs to treat irregular heart rhythm (atrial fibrillation) are dramatically increasing the rate of falls and fainting in older patients. More than 20 per cent of cases are resulting in a fracture or major head injury.
Beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers can increase the risk of a fall, but the biggest culprit was amiodarone (marketed as Cordarone or Nexterone), researchers have discovered.
Patients aged from 65 who were taking amiodarone were the most likely to suffer a fall, and often within the first 14 days of starting treatment, researchers from the American Geriatrics Society found.
But all the drugs used to treat atrial fibrillation carry the risk. They looked at the health records of 100,935 over-65s who had been prescribed an antiarrhythmic and then tracked them through hospital records to see if they had been treated for a fracture or head injury. In all, 20.9 percent had suffered a fractured thigh or elbow, or had major or minor head injuries, after fainting or falling while taking one of the drugs.
(Source: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2019; doi: 10.1111/jgs.16062)
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