Falls, depression and antidepressants in later life: A large primary care appraisal

Abstract

Background: Depression and falls are common and co-exist for older people. Safe management of each of these conditions is important to quality of life. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was used to examine medication use associated with injurious and non-injurious falls in 21,900 community-dwelling adults, aged 60 years or over from 383 Australian general practices recruited for the DEPS-GP Project. Falls and injury from falls, medication use, depressive symptoms (Primary Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)), clinical morbidity, suicidal ideation and intent, health status (SF-12 Health Survey), demographic and lifestyle information was reported in a standardised survey. Findings: Respondents were 7..