24.06.11
Study shows dangers to elderly people from drug combinations
A study into the side-effects of common drugs has found they can increase the risk of death and dementia in elderly people in some combinations.
The findings of the study, which included more than 13,000 people, have prompted warnings that reinforce the need for people to consult their doctors when taking a combination of drugs.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, was part of the Medical Research Council’s Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies project.
Chris Fox, clinical senior lecturer at Norwich Medical School, who led the research, said: “The sort of drugs we're looking at are used in allergies, depression, cardiac disease, bladder disease, pain relief and sometimes in anti-coagulation, very common drugs, some prescribed, some over the counter.”
Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “The message here is for doctors to regularly review the medication of your older patients. The message to patients is to ask, when you're given medication, the pharmacist if what you’re buying at the counter has any side-effects and may be bad in combination with the other drugs you take.”
Professor David Nutt, president of the British Neuroscience Association and vice-president of the European Brain Council, said that the negative effects of this class of drugs on brain and cardiac function had been known for decades and the latest study reinforced the dangers.
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