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EDITOR,--Kumud S Bhatnagar draws attention to the well established importance of drugs as a contributory factor in falls in elderly people; this point was also highlighted in the editorial that accompanied our paper.1 We attempted to obtain a drug history from the patients studied but were concerned about its reliability and analysis. Some patients were uncertain of which drugs they should be taking, there were problems with compliance, and drugs were altered during the observation period.We assessed cognitive impairment by using the abbreviated mental test score2 and reported no difference in median scores between "fallers" and "non-fallers" (table V in our paper). The number of patients with mental impairment (abbreviated mental test score </=7) was similar in both groups (five and three respectively).
As described in our paper, we assessed mental state by using the Nottingham health profile3 and showed that 53% of the fallers had scores indicating depressed
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