Benzo dementia link found
October 9, 2012
NEW use of benzodiazepines has
been linked with an increased risk
of dementia, according to research
published in the British Medical
Journal.
The French study was designed to
evaluate the association between
use of benzodiazepines and
incident dementia, and looked at
1,063 men and women (mean age
78.2 years) who were free of
dementia and did not start taking
benzodiazepines until at least the
third year of follow-up.
The researchers followed-up the
participants for 15 years and
confirmed 253 incident cases of
dementia.
According to the findings, new
use of benzodiazepines was
associated with an increased risk
of dementia (multivariable
adjusted hazard ratio 1.60, 95%
confidence interval 1.08 to 2.38).
Interestingly, using sensitivity
analysis researchers also found the
existence of depressive symptoms
showed a similar association
(hazard ratio 1.62, 1.08 to 2.43).
In addition, a secondary analysis
pooled cohorts of participants who
started benzodiazepines during
follow-up and evaluated the
association with incident dementia.
The pooled hazard ratio across
the five cohorts of new users was
1.46, whilst the results of a
complementary nested casecontrol
study showed that ever use
of benzodiazepines was associated
with a 50% increase in the risk of
dementia, compared with never
users.
“Considering the extent to which
benzodiazepines are prescribed
and the number of potential
adverse effects of this drug class in
the general population,
indiscriminate widespread use
should be cautioned against,”
researchers said.
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