The association between medication use and gait in adults with intellectual disabilities.

Only 31 people were studied, and the analysis was a secondary look at a study designed for another gait question, so it was not large enough to reliably detect medication-gait differences. The design measured medication use and gait at one time, so it cannot show that polypharmacy or antipsychotics caused the gait differences. The polypharmacy group was older and used more antidepressants, antiepileptics, and benzodiazepines; the models corrected only for sex and body mass index, so other differences may explain the gait findings. Participants were mostly male, living in care organisations, and had mild to moderate intellectual disability, so results may not apply to women, community-dwelling adults, or people with severe intellectual disability. People who could not walk without aids were excluded, so those with the most severe motor problems or medication effects may be missing. Common conditions that affect gait, including Down syndrome, Parkinson's disease, dementia, a previous stroke, cerebral palsy, and poor vision, were excluded. The study did not look at medication dose, duration, other psychotropic medicines, cardiovascular medicines, falls, daily functioning, or gait changes after starting or stopping medication. Because many gait parameters were tested without correction for multiple comparisons, some significant findings could be chance.

Do not conclude that polypharmacy or antipsychotic medicines caused the gait differences or that medication should be reduced or stopped. This was a small cross-sectional study of 31 adults who could already walk without aids, and the groups differed in age and other medicines, so the results show association only.