Sleeping Pills Lead To Dementia

Taking medication for anxiety and insomnia may predispose to development of dementia

The reasons for the link between these drugs and dementia are not yet specified.

Taking medication for anxiety and insomnia may predispose to development of dementia, say scientists. A study, published in the British medical journal, compared the risk of the condition in two groups of adults – 95 people, who were taking pills from the benzodiazepines group, and 968 patients who did not take any pills.
Over the next 15 years, scientists have diagnosed 253 cases of dementia. 32% of participants in the first group developed symptoms such as memory loss and difficulty in thinking, compared with 23 percent from the group of people who were not taking drugs. Among the drugs used by the patients were Halcion, Restoril, Ambien, Valium, Xanax.
Scientists discovered that the people who were taking medications from the group of benzodiazepines were having 60 percent higher risk of dementia, even after accounting for other factors known to affect brain function, such as age, loneliness, depression, high blood pressure and diabetes.
The reasons for the link between these drugs and dementia are not yet specified. It is not clear how they affect younger patients who resort to their use.
The study does not prove that the drugs cause a decline in memory and brain function. Taking the medications for a short period of time is safer, says the research team.
According to other scientists, however, elderly people should completely avoid this type of medicines. There is growing evidence that benzodiazepine use is a risk factor for disorders of the brain function, said Dr. Cara Tannenbaum of the University of Montreal in Canada.
But strangely, two previous studies found that users of benzodiazepines were having even a lower risk of dementia and are not affected by the increased risk of developing the condition.

Source : dailyhealtharticles[dot]com