Could Benzodiazepine Use Increase Alzheimer Risk?

Benzodiazepine use isn’t associated with an increased risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer disease, according to a new study.

Previous research on how benzodiazepine affects patients in the short-term vs. the long-term is conflicting, which led researchers to conduct their own study about the effects of the common drug.
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To conduct their study, researchers followed 3434 patients aged 65 years and older who didn’t have dementia at baseline and were participating in the Adult Changes in Thought study. About 2581 patients participated in 1994-1996 and 811 participated in 2000-2003.

Every 2 years, researchers assessed the occurrence of dementia by using the cognitive abilities screening instrument (CASI) and analyzed pharmacy data to determine patients’ total standardized daily dose (TSDD) of benzodiazepine over a 10-year period, as categorized as 1-30 TSDDs, 31-120 TSDDs, or more than 121 TSDDs.

After a mean follow-up of 7 years, researchers found that 23% of patients developed dementia and, of those, 80% had Alzheimer disease. A slight increased risk for developing Alzheimer was associated with patients in the 1-30 TSDDs group, but those taking more than 121 TSDDs didn’t have an increased risk.

“The risk of dementia is slightly higher in people with minimal exposure to benzodiazepines but not with the highest level of exposure,” researchers concluded. “These results do not support a causal association between benzodiazepine use and dementia.”

--Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Gray SL, Dublin S, Yu O, et al. Benzodiazepine use and risk of incident dementia or cognitive decline: prospective population based study. BMJ. Published online February 2, 2016. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i90.