ReviewDrugs & aging2022
Opioids and Falls Risk in Older Adults: A Narrative Review.
Review in Drugs & aging, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond Conventional Analgesics: Updated Evidence Supporting Botulinum Toxin Type A for-Neuralgia Management.International journal of medical sciences · 2026Pooled it
- Potentially inappropriate prescribing and falls-risk increasing drugs in people who have experienced a fall: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Age and ageing · 2025Pooled it
- Association between loneliness and incident use of benzodiazepines and opioids: analyses of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.Age and ageing · 2026Article
- Incidence of Naloxone-Use Before and After Implementing Opioid Safety Measures for Patients Hospitalised on General Wards in a Swiss University Hospital.Drug safety · 2026Observational
- The Feasibility and Acceptability of a Collaborative Deprescribing Intervention to Reduce Anticholinergic Burden Among Hospitalised Older Patients.Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology · 2026Article
- Characteristics of Inpatient Falls and Factors Associated with Fall-Related Fractures and Recurrent Falls in a Japanese University Hospital.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The combined association of STOPPFall medication use and orthostatic blood pressure abnormalities with future falls and fractures in community-dwelling older people.European geriatric medicine · 2026Article
- Double Jeopardy: Risks of Opioid-Benzodiazepine Co-prescription in Older Adults with Gastrointestinal Cancer.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Article
- Opioid prescribing practices in the U.S. and subsequent falls: a scoping review protocol.Systematic reviews · 2026Article
- Psychotropic medication use and bone fracture risk among patients with multiple sclerosis: a real-world study.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2026Article
- Patient Characteristics and Risk of Fall-Related Injuries Among New Users of Opioids in Denmark: A Longitudinal Descriptive Study.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2026Article
- Risk of hospitalization and opioid use in older people with dementia.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Chronic Pain and Opioids in the Elderly: Treating the Brain, Not Just the Body.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Review
- Psychiatric, Cardiovascular and Skeletal Risks of Codeine versus Oxycodone in Hip Osteoarthritis: A Population-Based Cohort Study.Drug design, development and therapy · 2026Article
- Optimising end-of-life geriatric pharmacotherapy: a hospital-based retrospective cohort study of deprescribing early in the care trajectory before hospice transition.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2025Article
- Prevalence and association of fall-risk-increasing drugs (FRIDs) with fall-related head and non-head injuries in older adults: a retrospective database study.Scientific reports · 2025Observational
- Chronic prescription opioid use in MS: Associations with adverse outcomes and acute medical service utilization.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Management of Chronic Pain in Elderly Patients: The Central Role of Nurses in Multidisciplinary Care.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Pruritus in Palliative Care: A Narrative Review of Essential Oil-Based Strategies to Alleviate Cutaneous Discomfort.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Exploring pain management preferences: a discrete choice experiment on cannabis or opioids among middle-aged and older adults.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pain treatment is important in older adults but may result in adverse events such as falls. Opioids are effective for nociceptive pain but the evidence for neuropathic pain is weak. Nevertheless, both pain and opioids may increase the risk of falls. This narrative literature review aims to summarize the existing knowledge on the opioid-related fall risk in older adults, including the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and assist clinicians in prescribing and deprescribing opioids in older persons. We systematically searched relevant literature on opioid-related fall risk in older adults in PubMed and Scopus in December 2020. We reviewed the literature and evaluated fall-related adverse effects of opioids, explaining how to optimally approach deprescribing of opioids in older adults. Opioid use increases fall risk through drowsiness, (orthostatic) hypotension and also through hyponatremia caused by weak opioids. When prescribing, opioids should be started with low dosages if possible, keeping in mind their metabolic genetic variation. Falls are clinically significant adverse effects of all opioids, and the risk may be dose dependent and highest with strong opioids. The risk is most prominent in older adults prone to falls. To reduce the risk of falls, both pain and the need for opioids should be assessed on a regular basis, and deprescribing or changing to a lower dosage or safer alternative should be considered if the clinical condition allows. Deprescribing should be done by reducing the dosage gradually and by assessing and monitoring the pain and withdrawal symptoms at the same time. Weighing the risks and benefits is necessary before prescribing opioids, especially to older persons at high risk of falls. Clinical decision tools assist prescribers in clinical decisions regarding (de-) prescribing.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.