Patients with Parkinson′s disease (PD) have been found to have up to a 60% chance of falling, with these falls a major reason for hospitalization and changes in health related quality of life. Psychotropic medications have previously been found to be associated with increased morbidity, although drug-related fall risk has not been well studied. Thus, this cross-sectional, descriptive study was designed to determine the association between the risk of falls and the use of psychotropic drugs among patients with PD.

Data were obtained from two large PD research databases at the University of Florida Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration. Subjects were patients clinically diagnosed with PD, with data collected from each patient once per year. From these databases, demographic and clinical variables, including the use of psychotropic drugs, were extracted. These data were compared to fall history.

Of the 647 patients included, 67% were taking at least one psychotropic medication, and 47% were taking a combination of drugs. Overall, 40% of the subjects sustained at least one fall during the study timeframe. Use of antidepressants alone, benzodiazepines alone and a combination of the two were found to be independent risk factors for falls (odds ratios 2.2, 2.2 and 4.1, respectively). The fall frequency was higher among patients taking antidepressants alone than among those not on psychotropic medications (P<0.0001), while benzodiazepine use alone did not increase the frequency of falls.

This study of patients with Parkinson′s disease found that the use of antidepressants is associated with a higher frequency of falls.