Researchers have
found that people suffering from depression are more likely to fall, pointing
to a complex relationship between mental illness, a sense of balance, and
falling in older people.
Australian researchers have found that people
suffering from depression are more likely to fall, pointing to a complex
relationship between mental illness, a sense of balance, and falling in older
people.
Falls are a major public health issue across the
world. Amongst the elderly, it is a cause of significant morbidity and
accidental death.
The study, published in the journal Age and
Ageing, involved 300 participants from southern Taiwan, aged 65 to 91 who
were not on antidepressant medication. They were assessed by researchers at
Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) using the Geriatric Depression Scale
and underwent balance and mobility testing.
On follow-up telephone calls every two months, it was
found that depression was more common in people who fell compared to those who
did not fall – 40 percent of recurrent fallers, 28 percent of people who fell
once, and only 16 percent of people who did not fall had depression.
“We’ve known that depression and falls are connected
in older people for some time, but we were never able to determine whether
depression itself or anti-depressants increase the rate of falling,” said lead
researcher Professor Stephen Lord.
“But anti-depressants are not commonly taken by the
people we studied and so for the first time we were able to measure lifestyle
factors, rates of depression, and how often people fell without the effect of
any depression-related medications,” he said.
This study proves that in addition to enhancing
vision, strength and balance, health programs around the world designed to
prevent falling in older people also need to consider mental health, the
authors say.
“Now we know that depression and falls are
interrelated, fall prevention strategies targeting older people need to also
assess and treat depression to have the maximum impact,” Lord said.
The article can be found at: Kwan MM et al. (2012) Depressive
symptoms in addition to visual impairment, reduced strength and poor balance
predict falls in older Taiwanese people.
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Source: NeuRA.
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