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Three well-known drugs send elderly to hospital

More elderly end up in US hospital emergency rooms because of adverse reactions to just three common drugs compared to side effects from any other drugs, accounting for a third of all such visits by seniors, according to figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Side effects from the common drugs – the blood thinner warfarin, diabetes drug insulin and heart drug digoxin – triggered about 58,000 emergency room trips for seniors 65 and older in each 2004 and 2005.

A CDC medical officer, Dr Daniel Budnitz, said the adverse reactions usually were a result of inaccurate dosing and prescribing of the drugs.

Warfarin, which is typically prescribed to heart patients, thins the blood to prevent blood clots, but it can result in excessive bleeding if the blood is thinned too much. While treating diabetes, insulin can cause blood sugar levels to drop dangerously in some situations. Digoxin, which has been in the market many years, has a host of potential side effects that range from nausea to an erratic heartbeat.

Dr Budnitz noted that a type of ‘Catch-22’ situation exists with these three drugs in that doctors continue to prescribe them because there aren’t really viable alternatives, although a number of medical experts say digoxin’s long life may mean it has outlived its usefulness.

The research findings are “a reminder that doctors and patients need to work on doing the best job we can managing these medicines”, Budnitz said. “The answer isn’t to take away medications.”

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