Older Patients On Sedatives At Increased Suicide Risk
Posted on: Thursday, 4 June 2009, 12:30 CDT
Swedish researchers said on Wednesday that sedatives and sleeping pills prescribed to ease depression, anxiety and sleep problems appear to increase the risk of suicide four-fold among the elderly, Reuters reported.
Antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedatives and hypnotics appeared to make it more likely that an older person would commit suicide, according to a review of elderly suicides in the Swedish city of Gothenburg and two nearby counties.
Anders Carlsten and Margda Waern of Gothenburg University reported in the BioMed Central journal BMC Geriatrics that while previous research had linked use of these drugs to suicides among younger people, there had also been evidence the pills may reduce the risk in the elderly.
Researchers analyzed the records of 85 men and women older than 65 who had committed suicide and compared them with a group of elderly people from among the general population who did not kill themselves.
Carlsten's team found that after adjusting for psychiatric conditions, the patients who took sedatives and hypnotics for sleeping problems were four times more likely to commit suicide.
The authors suggested clinicians should be aware of this, as these drugs are widely prescribed to the elderly.
Some 877,000 people worldwide kill themselves each year, and for every suicide death, anywhere from 10 to 40 attempts are made, according to estimates from the World Health Organization.
Sleep disturbances have been linked in the past to increased suicidal risk in people with psychiatric disorders and in adolescents, but scientists say it is unclear whether the association also exists in the general population.
The researchers wrote that a careful evaluation of the suicide risk should be carried out when an elderly person shows symptoms of anxiety and sleep disturbance.
Carlsten and Waern suggested that the drugs somehow trigger aggressive or impulsive behavior or provide the means for people to take an overdose, although they are not sure why.
Additionally, disabilities or sleep problems may make people more likely to commit suicide, they warned.
"Persons with these problems might be more likely to seek health care and perhaps more likely to receive prescriptions for psychotropic drugs," the study said.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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