Relation Between Psychoactive Drugs Overdosage and Severity of Falls in Elderly People

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Blood sampling for psychoactive drugs dosage: 4 blood samples for psychoactive drugs identification and dosage will be taken on arrival at the emergency room during fall management

Study summary

There are many epidemiological data on the relationship between the number or nature of psychoactive medications used and the risk of falling in elderly, but very little on the relationship between the amount of psychoactive medication actually present in the blood and the severity of the fall. However, the inevitable drug-drug interactions related to polypharmacy and the pharmacokinetic modifications related to old age may lead plasma overdose situations which can potentiate the risk of falls but also aggravate these consequences. The investigators therefore propose a study with the objective of verifying whether the proportion of falls with serious traumatic consequences is more frequent in patients over 75 years old, presenting plasma overdoses of psychoactive drugs (plasma concentrations higher than the usual therapeutic concentrations) in regard to those between therapeutic ranges.

The aim of this work is to verify if the falls present more severe characters when the psychoactive drug concentrations are beyond the usual therapeutic ranges.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Comparison of the percentages of falls with serious traumatic consequences in each of the two "overdosed" and "non-overdosed" groups. — 3 years
  To evaluate if serious traumatic consequences are more important in the group of elderly patients with plasma overdoses of psychoactive drugs than in the "non-overdosed" group.

Trial sites (1)

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