NHS Evidence expert commentary: Benzodiazepines and the risk of dementia

Source: NHS Evidence Area: News The February edition of 'Eyes on Evidence', the free monthly e-bulletin from NHS Evidence covering major new published evidence as it emerges with an explanation about what it means for current practice, includes an expert commentary on new data from a prospective population based cohort study assessing whether there was an association between starting benzodiazepines, and similar drugs, and risk of subsequent dementia in 1063 people aged 65 years and over (mean age 78.2 years). The total study duration was 20 years, including a 5 year observation period and a 15-year assessment period. Patients were eligible for the study if they were dementia free at 5-years and did not start taking hypnotics until at least year 3   During the 15-year follow-up, 253 (23.8% of the cohort) cases of dementia were confirmed: 30 (32%) in benzodiazepine users (n=95) and 223 (23.0%) in non-users (n=968). After adjusting for potential confounders, new use of benzodiazepines was associated with ...
Source: NeLM - News - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: news