Elderly Patients At Risk Of Hypotension: Anti-hypertensive Medications Doing Harm?

Elderly patients, or patients over 70 may be being unintentionally harmed by healthcare providers themselves. According to a new study, elderly patients are still prescribed antihypertensive medications when they already have low blood pressure. 

The new study, which is published in the journal Age and Ageing, claimed that because elderly patients with low blood pressure are giving anti-hypertensive medications, this can lead to fatalities. 

The the researchers from CHSS at the University of Kent and East Kent Hospitals claimed this is one reason behind the increased mortality rates and admissions to the hospital among patients 70 years and above. They found that hypotension is significantly linked to increasing mortality rates and frequency of hospital admissions. 

The findings were generated from 11,167 patients over 70 years old. 

"Treating hypertension in old age reduces strokes and other cardiovascular events. However in elderly patients with multiple risks, there is a trade-off between using antihypertensives to reduce the risk of future disease and increased risk due to adverse effects of medication."

The problem is that healthcare providers often are not mindful of the fact that they need to adjust for psychological changes generated by aging. 

Hypotension due to drugs, if not addressed soon, can become a costly problem to NHS. It can negatively affect the quality of elderly patients' lives. As such, healthcare providers and caregivers are called to be pay more attention to the treatment given to the elderly patients. Treatments must be regular updated and reviewed. 

Recently, The Nation newspaper just reported that silent killer diseases include hypotension, apart from the more well-known conditions of hypertension and diabetes. According to biomedical scientist, Dr Bola John, silent killers are diseases that a person lives with for some time without being aware they have them until it's too late.  It's time to pay attention.