A team led by Shelly Gray, a professor of pharmacy at the University of Washington in Seattle, studied more than 3,400 people aged 65 and older. All did not have dementia at the beginning of the study.
The benzodiazepine use of each patient was assessed, and each was then followed for an average of seven years.
During that time, 23 percent of the patients developed Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, Gray's group reported in the Feb. 2 issue of the BMJ.
Those with the highest level of benzodiazepine use had no higher risk of dementia or mental decline than other patients, the study found.
"Overall, our results do not support a causal association between benzodiazepine use and dementia," Gray and her colleages wrote.
Anxiety Meds Won't Raise Seniors' Dementia Risk
Anxiety Meds Won't Raise Seniors' Dementia Risk
Anxiety Meds Won't Raise Seniors' Dementia Risk
ApoE 4/4 - When I was in 7th grade, my fellow students in history class called me "The Brain" because I had such a memory for detail. I excelled at memorization and aced tests. This childhood memory helps me cope!
Re: Anxiety Meds Won't Raise Seniors' Dementia Risk
Wow, that is interesting! I wish they could keep going over decades. Maybe reducing the deleterious effects of anxiety is more important than the degree of anticholinergic effects in the benzos. I'll be interested in some professional commentary on the study.
ApoE 3/4 > Thanks in advance for any responses made to my posts.
Re: Anxiety Meds Won't Raise Seniors' Dementia Risk
Here’s an article I came across later today about an international research team from the US, UK, and Ireland that “analyzed more than 27 million prescriptions as recorded in the medical records of 40,770 patients over age 65 diagnosed with dementia compared to the records of 283,933 older adults without dementia”:
Common class of drugs linked to dementia even when taken 20 years before diagnosis
Common class of drugs linked to dementia even when taken 20 years before diagnosis
Anxiety meds aren’t mentioned here, so I checked the original study, Anticholinergic drugs and risk of dementia: case-control study:The researchers found greater incidence of dementia among patients prescribed anticholinergic antidepressants, anticholinergic bladder medications and anticholinergic Parkinson's disease medications than among older adults who were not prescribed these drugs.
Many people use anticholinergic drugs at some point in their lives, and many are prescribed to manage chronic conditions leading to potentially long exposures. There are robust associations between levels of anticholinergic antidepressants, antiparkinsons, and urologicals and the risk of a diagnosis of dementia up to 20 years after exposure. Other anticholinergics appear not to be linked to the risk of dementia, and risks remain uncertain for other drugs. Clinicians should continue to be vigilant with respect to the use of anticholinergic drugs, and should consider the risk of long term cognitive effects, as well as short term effects, associated with specific drug classes when performing their risk-benefit analysis.
ApoE 4/4 - When I was in 7th grade, my fellow students in history class called me "The Brain" because I had such a memory for detail. I excelled at memorization and aced tests. This childhood memory helps me cope!
Re: Anxiety Meds Won't Raise Seniors' Dementia Risk
Wow, eye opener. I can’t understand how some could have this effect and not others, but then why should it be simple?
ApoE 3/4 > Thanks in advance for any responses made to my posts.
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Orangeblossom
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Re: Anxiety Meds Won't Raise Seniors' Dementia Risk
I checked this meta study about the benzos. It seems they are linked but it is inconclusive.
"Long-term benzodiazepine users have an increased risk of dementia compared with never users. However, findings from our study should be treated with caution due to limited studies and potential reverse causation. Large prospective cohort studies with long follow-up duration are warranted to confirm these findings."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26016483
This also looks useful
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/ben ... 1409107397
"Long-term benzodiazepine users have an increased risk of dementia compared with never users. However, findings from our study should be treated with caution due to limited studies and potential reverse causation. Large prospective cohort studies with long follow-up duration are warranted to confirm these findings."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26016483
This also looks useful
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/ben ... 1409107397
