New Study Links Long-Term Use Of Popular Sedative To Alzheimer’s Disease

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Benzodiazepine, a sedative that is widely prescribed to treat people suffering from anxiety and insomnia, have been linked to a 50 percent increase in the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a team of French and Canadian researchers reported Tuesday in the online edition of the journal BMJ.
In the study, lead investigator Sophie Billioti de Gage of the University of Bordeaux and her colleagues looked at nearly 2,000 cases of Alzheimer’s disease in Quebec residents at least 66 years of age, all of whom had been prescribed benzodiazepines. The researchers then compared those individuals to more than 7,000 healthy people of roughly the same age and living in the same community.
According to The Huffington Post UK, de Gage and her associates discovered that previous use of the sedatives for at least three months was associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s five years later. That risk varied from 43 percent to 51 percent, and the strength of the association increased with the longer duration of use. It also increased with use of long-acting benzodiazepine versus short-acting ones.
“Our study reinforces the suspicion of an increased risk of Alzheimer-type dementia among benzodiazepine users, particularly long-term users, and provides arguments for carefully evaluating the indications for use of this drug class,” the authors wrote, adding that the findings were “of major importance for public health, especially considering the prevalence and chronicity of benzodiazepine use in older people and the high and increasing incidence of dementia in developed countries.”
Benzodiazepines include such popular medications as diazepam and lorazepam, explained Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor for The Telegraph. In fact, more than six million prescriptions were issued for the drugs in England last year, she added, which is what makes the findings so important. While the authors say the study results do not prove that drugs are causing Alzheimer’s, they said that there is a strong “suspicion of possible direct causation.”
In light of the findings, de Gage and her colleagues said that benzodiazepines should not be used for more than three months. However, Smith and others point out that some experts believe the results could just reflect the fact that many people who are already in the early stages of the neurodegenerative disease are being treated for anxiety and/or sleep disorders, and that this could cast doubt on the paper’s conclusions.
“This study shows an apparent link between the use of benzodiazepines and Alzheimer’s disease although it’s hard to know the underlying reason behind the link,” Dr. Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, told BBC News. “One limitation of this study is that benzodiazepines treat symptoms such as anxiety and sleep disturbance, which may also be early indicators of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Professor Guy Goodwin, president of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, added that the study’s findings “could mean that the drugs cause the disease, but is more likely to mean that the drugs are being given to people who are already ill.” However, Dr. James Pickett of the Alzheimer’s Society, said the paper provided evidence that long-term benzodiazepine use “increases the risk of dementia is significant.”
In related news, AFP reports published Wednesday revealed that the annual cost of dementia in the UK has increased to 26 billion pounds, and that patients, their families and their caretakers were being forced to cover two-thirds of those costs themselves.
According to the news agency, Alzheimer’s Society chief executive Jeremy Hughes is calling on the British government to provide those individuals and families with more financial assistance, calling the fact they only receive financial assistance totaling an average of one-third of their annual total care costs equivalent to enacting a “dementia tax” that “unfairly disadvantaged” the 225,000 people who develop the condition every year.