Globe and Mail: "Older women more likely to be prescribed inappropriate drugs"

"Even after accounting for differences in patients’ income, ethnicity, health and marital status, “we still found that being a woman elevated the risk of receiving these inappropriate prescriptions by between 16 and 23 per cent,” said Steve Morgan, the study’s principal investigator and a professor in UBC’s school of population and public health.

In the UBC study, the medications most likely to be inappropriately prescribed were benzodiazepines (tranquilizers such as Valium and Xanax). Others included nifedipine (a cardiovascular drug used to manage angina and high blood pressure) and tetracyclic antidepressants (an older class of antidepressants)."

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"Benzodiazepines, used to treat anxiety and insomnia, cause dizziness and increase the risk of falls in older adults. “And they’re habit forming – people have difficulty getting off them.”

Guidelines suggest that patients should not take benzodiazepines for more than 30 to 60 days. But in the study, 13 per cent of women over 65 had filled those prescriptions for 90 days or more, compared with 8.4 per cent of men."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/older-women-more-likely-to-be-prescribed-inappropriate-drugs-study/article30120533/ 

:'( :'( :'( I read in another study that peri-menopausal women (+-37 to +- 50) are most often prescribed benzos, tranqs, anti-depressants and sleeping pills by Doctors and Psychiatrists because of side-effects related to peri-menopause when they should rather be seeing their Gynae's for hormone replacement therapy.

This made a whole lot more sense to me. And since having hormones & blood tests done by my Female Gynae, have discovered hormones TOTALLY out of whack, cortisol levels through the roof and adrenal fatigue because of years of pill popping abuse.

On HRT, helping a lot with my PMS related madness and anxiety and general weepiness.

* Personal experience. Please do not use as medical advice.

x ATGNT ( All The Good Names Taken )