CC Intervention: Discuss precautions to take such as dizziness if you get up too quickly, be sure to get out of bed slowly by resting your feet on the floor for a few minutes prior to standing up.
Patient Action: Talk with my care team about my medications and their effects on risks for falls.
CC Context: Your doctor or care team can review your medications to make sure you don’t have any medications making you unsteady. Certain medications (e.g., sedatives, blood pressure drugs, antidepressants, or muscle relaxants) can cause dizziness, drowsiness, or low blood pressure, which increases the risk of falling. Sometimes these medications need to be changed, or dosage adjustments made, to prevent the adverse effects that can lead to falls. If you are on a blood pressure medicine and your blood pressure gets too low when you change position, you can get dizzy or even blackout which can cause a fall. This is called orthostatic hypotension. In these cases, the patient needs to sit for a few minutes after they’ve been lying down before they stand up. Do not stand up quickly as the blood pressure can drop, make you dizzy, and could make you pass out or fall. Once you stand, stand in place for a minute and make sure you are not dizzy and are stable before you take a step. If a patient is experiencing these symptoms, they need to discuss this with their doctor or care team to see if their medication or dosage needs to be changed. Monitoring blood pressure can also help to recognize if they might be at risk for orthostatic hypotension if their blood pressure is running low.
Questions to Ask:
- Are you properly hydrating?
- Have you talked to your doctor or care team about your symptoms?
- Have you been monitoring your blood pressure and what kind of readings are you getting?
- Are you making sure to take your medications properly, you haven’t forgotten and taken your blood pressure medicine more than you should?
- Do you get up slowly or fast?