Sleeping Pills and Anti-Anxiety Drugs Up Death Risk: Study

A latest research paper shows anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills increase the risk of death.

Researchers at the University of Warwick, England, examined 34, 727 people for 7 and half years on average from the time that they received prescriptions for either an anxiolytic (anti-anxiety)or hypnotic drug (sleeping pills).

The authors focused on contributing risk factors such as sleep disorders, anxiety disorders and other psychiatric illness in all participants. They also took into account various factors such as age, smoking and alcohol use, other prescriptions and socioeconomic status of the participants.

The researchers found that benzodiazepines were the most commonly prescribed drug class, including diazepam and temazepam. They also examined the effects of two other groups of drugs; the so-called 'Z-drugs' and all other anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs.

The findings showed that most of the patients received more than one drug during the study time frame, and 5 percent received prescriptions for drugs from all three groups. The researchers said that the results showed that anxiolytic drugs and hypnotic drugs doubled the death risk.

However, they stated that the findings were based on regular data and should be carefully interpreted and that a greater understanding of the impact of the drugs is necessary.

"The key message here is that we really do have to use these drugs more carefully. This builds on a growing body of evidence suggesting that their side effects are significant and dangerous. We have to do everything possible to minimize over reliance on anxiolytics and sleeping pills," Professor Scott Weich,said .

"That's not to say that they cannot be effective. But particularly due to their addictive potential we need to make sure that we help patients to spend as little time on them as possible and that we consider other options, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, to help them to overcome anxiety or sleep problems," he explained.

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