Article

Accidental falls in older individuals are a major health and research topic.
Increased reaction time and impaired postural balance have been determined as
reliable predictors for those at risk of falling and are important functions of
the central nervous system (CNS). An essential risk factor for falls is
medication exposure. Amongst the medications related to accidental falls are the
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
About 1-10% of all users
experience CNS side effects. These side effects, such as dizziness, headaches,
drowsiness, mood alteration, and confusion, seem to be more common during
treatment with indomethacin. Hence, it is possible that maintenance of (static)
postural balance and swift reactions to stimuli are affected by exposure to
NSAIDs, indomethacin in particular, consequently putting older individuals at a
greater risk for accidental falls. The present study investigated the effect of a
high indomethacin dose in healthy middle-aged individuals on two important
predictors of falls: postural balance and reaction time. Twenty-two healthy
middle-aged individuals (59.5 +/- 4.7 years) participated in this double-blind,
placebo-controlled, randomized crossover trial. Three measurements were conducted
with a week interval each. A measurement consisted of postural balance as a
single task and while concurrently performing a secondary cognitive task and
reaction time tasks. For the first measurement indomethacin 75 mg (slow-release)
or a visually identical placebo was randomly assigned. In total, five capsules
were taken orally in the 2.5 days preceding assessment. The second measurement
was without intervention, for the final one the first placebo group got
indomethacin and vice versa. Repeated measures GLM revealed no significant
differences between indomethacin, placebo, and baseline in any of the balance
tasks. No differences in postural balance were found between the single and dual
task conditions, or on the performance of the dual task itself. Similarly, no
differences were found on the manual reaction time tasks. The present study
showed that a high indomethacin dose does not negatively affect postural balance
and manual reaction time in this healthy middle-aged population. Although the
relatively small and young sample limits the direct ability to generalize the
results to a population at risk of falling, the results indicate that
indomethacin alone is not likely to increase fall risk, as far as this risk is
related to above mentioned important functions of the CNS, and not affected by
comorbidities.
CI - Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS