Blog 5: Insomnia, Anxiety Drugs May Raise Dementia Risk (Lindasy Chase)

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=163440


A new study conducted shows that seniors that take medications for insomnia and anxiety are more likely to have dementia than those that don't. Some drugs given to elders are considered habit forming drugs, so someone taking them for a short period of time will sometimes end up taking them for years even. 95 Seniors taking anxiety and insomnia drugs and 968 who were not were in a study conducted to see the effects of drugs with dementia. It was later published in the BMJ, and they were all French seniors. Over the next 15 years doctors had diagnosed two hundred and fifty three cases of dementia and difficulty thinking. Some of these drugs were Ambien, Valium, and Xanax. Researchers did take into account that there are other factors that contribute to dementia. For instance, high blood pressure, depression, living alone, and old age. However, this study did not prove that these drugs cause dementia, although they do say it is safe to use them for a short period of time. An MD in canada states that there is growing evidence showing that these types of drugs do effect the cognitive processes of the brain. Some experts do say that seniors may want to stay away from these dugs altogether. There are many views on this subject, concerning whether or not benzodiazepine users memory is really affected. Some studies conducted by theses experts were for shorter periods of time and didn't rule of the option of the drugs effecting its users. One problem with the study is that researchers do not know if this effects younger people since the study was centered around seniors. So many experts say that seniors should seek out alternatives to these types of drugs to lessent the risk of dementia.