Insomnia and the Elderly

Sleep aids may not be responsible for perilous falls

Insomnia in nursing home residents often goes untreated because doctors believe that sleeping pills increase the risk of falls — a frequent cause of serious injuries and major health crises in the elderly. Results from a new U-M Medical School study suggest that the real culprit may be the underlying insomnia, rather than the medications used to treat it.

“Many physicians assume that if an older patient with insomnia is given a hypnotic drug to help induce sleep, the drug will make the patient more likely to fall and develop a hip fracture,” says U-M sleep specialist Alon Avidan, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of neuro-logy in the Medical School. “But our findings suggest that people whose insomnia is treated effectively are less likely to fall than untreated insomniacs.”

The study included more than 34,000 Michigan nursing home residents over age 65. Individuals with untreated insomnia at the start of the six-month study period were 90 percent more likely to fall, compared to those without insomnia. In contrast, those who were taking hypnotic drugs to treat their insomnia were only 29 percent more likely to fall than those without insomnia.

—KEG

For an expanded version of the story:
www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2005/insomnia.htm

For patient information on insomnia:
www.med.umich.edu/1libr/aha/aha_insomnia_crs.htm