Falls and fall-related injuries among inpatients are one of the most important concerns in medical safety management and sometimes cause a significant decrease in activities of daily living (ADL). It has been suggested that the adverse reactions of psychotropic drugs related to their sedative-hypnotic, cognitive deficit producing and muscle reaction-related effects are closely associated with falls.
In this study, we examined a relationship between the risk of falls and psychotropic drugs based on prescriptions in fall incident reports at Nagoya University Hospital in a 12-month period beginning in April 1, 2005. In July 2006, we conducted an educational intervention involving instructing health care staff on the optimal use of psychotropics. After doing this, we examined prescriptions in fall incident reports over a 12-month period beginning in April 1, 2006. The results showed a decrease in fall incidence due to long-acting drugs in 2006 as compared with 2005 and this indicated that, among psychotropics, sedativehypnotic-anxiolytics were one of the highest risk factors for falls. These results suggest that an educational intervention can be an effective means of reducing the number of falls and fall-related injuries among inpatients.
