Researchers Compile Surprising List Of Most Risky Drugs For Older Americans

[HuckleB]

http://getbetterhealth.com/researchers-compile-surprising-list-of-most-risky-drugs-for-older-americans/2011.12.03

"Some medications are well known for being risky, especially for older people. Certain antihistamines, barbiturates, muscle relaxants—take too much of them, or take them with certain other medications, and you can wind up in serious trouble (and possibly in the back of ambulance).

But researchers from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Emory University reported in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine that those high-risk medications are not the ones that most commonly put older Americans (ages 65 and older) in the hospital.

Warfarin is #1
Instead, they found that warfarin is the most common culprit. Warfarin (the brand-name version is called Coumadin) reduces the blood’s tendency to clot. Many older people take it to lower their risk of getting a stroke.

After warfarin, different types of insulin taken by people with diabetes were the second most common cause of medication-related emergency hospitalization in this study, followed by oral antiplatelet drugs (aspirin and clopidogrel, sold as Plavix, are the main ones) and then the oral hypoglycemic drugs (glyburide and glipizide, for example) that people with type 2 diabetes take to manage their blood sugar levels.

..."

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Interesting research.

[handmade34]

1. rat poison... ugh

less processed food=less insulin

education is key

[LeftishBrit]

2. Interesting

I know two people who ended up in the hospital from bleeding as a result of taking ordinary doses of aspirin (they're siblings, so there may be a genetic link there). Both recovered, but never took aspirin again.

I can well believe that warfarin could be dangerous if the dose is not adjusted rather carefully.

[Sgent]

3. I'm trying to figure out who this surprises

certainly not any FP / Internal Medicine / ER doc...

The problem is that Warfarin and Aspirin / Plavix have significant beneficial effects for people who need them -- even enough to outweigh the bleeding risks.

No medication you put in your body is going to be 100% safe, its a decision if the benefits outweigh the harms.