{"id":24349,"date":"2026-07-31T15:27:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T19:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ices.on.ca\/?post_type=journal_article&#038;p=24349"},"modified":"2026-08-04T15:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T19:44:11","slug":"loneliness-and-initiation-of-potentially-inappropriate-pain-and-psychotropic-medications","status":"publish","type":"journal_article","link":"https:\/\/www.ices.on.ca\/fr\/publications\/journal-articles\/loneliness-and-initiation-of-potentially-inappropriate-pain-and-psychotropic-medications\/","title":{"rendered":"Loneliness and initiation of potentially inappropriate pain and psychotropic medications: a retrospective cohort study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Background<\/strong> \u2014 Loneliness is associated with high-risk medication use in older adults in cross-sectional studies, but the direction of this relationship is unclear.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Objective<\/strong> \u2014 The aim of this study was to examine the association between loneliness and initiation of potentially inappropriate pain and psychotropic medications, and test for sex interactions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Methods<\/strong> \u2014 We conducted a retrospective cohort study of community-dwelling respondents to the Canadian Community Health Survey\u2014Healthy Aging who were interviewed between December 1, 2008, and November 30, 2009, aged \u226566 years, and Ontario residents. Self-reported loneliness was defined at baseline as a score of \u22656 on the Three-Item Loneliness Scale. Survey responses were linked to health records; respondents were followed for 3 years to assess initiation of a potentially inappropriate pain or psychotropic medication, defined using the 2019 American Geriatrics Society\u2019s Beers Criteria. We used weighted Cox proportional hazards regression models to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and tested for sex interactions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Results<\/strong> \u2014 Of 2348 respondents (female 54.6%, mean age 75.4 years), 383 (12.3%) were lonely. Compared with those who were not lonely, lonely female respondents had higher rates of initiating potentially inappropriate pain medications (HR at 90 days: 1.57, 95% CI 0.96\u20132.27; 630 days: 1.52, 95% CI 1.05\u20132.12; 1080 days: 3.22, 95% CI 1.22\u20137.78) and potentially inappropriate psychotropic medications, but the latter estimates were imprecise. No association was found in males.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong> \u2014 Lonely older females initiate potentially inappropriate pain and psychotropic medications at higher rates than those who are not lonely. Screening for loneliness could prioritize patients for medication reviews, possible deprescribing, and interventions that address root causes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background \u2014 Loneliness is associated with high-risk medication use in older adults in cross-sectional studies, but the direction of this relationship is unclear. Objective \u2014 The aim of this study was to examine the association between loneliness and initiation of potentially inappropriate pain and psychotropic medications, and test for sex interactions. Methods \u2014 We conducted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","migration-helper-automated":[],"migration-manual":[],"topic":[34,17,56],"migration-helper-qa-sample-set":[],"class_list":["post-24349","journal_article","type-journal_article","status-publish","hentry","topic-mental-health-and-addictions","topic-older-people","topic-pharmacoepidemiology-and-drug-safety"],"acf":{"citation":"Savage RD, Bronskill SE, Gruneir A, Boblitz A, Guan J, Altaf A, Strauss R, Sanmartin C, Rosella LC, Stall NM, Chamberlain SA, McCarthy LM, Wang X, Yu C, Odugbemi T, Rochon PA. <em>Drugs Aging<\/em>. 2026; Jul 31 [Epub ahead of print].","source_url":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s40266-026-01324-7","ices_scientist":[1355,1159,1339,1340],"site":[6733],"research_program":[6740],"news_release":"","journal_article":"","atlas":"","research_report":"","infographic":"","video":"","downloads":null,"links":null,"sitecore_item_id":"","sitecore_item_name":"","sitecore_field_values":"","previous_url":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>ICES | Loneliness and initiation of potentially inappropriate pain and psychotropic medications: a retrospective cohort study<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Background \u2014 Loneliness is associated with high-risk medication use in older adults in cross-sectional studies, but the direction of this relationship is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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