Prescription sleeping pills may increase the risk of premature death – more than fourfold, as the latest research suggests!
Research shows that even the occasional use of such drugs is already associated with the risk of premature death. Experts urged doctors to stop prescribing sleeping pills as a seemingly quick effect but not actually solving the problem. Patients with sleep problems should rather be recommended psychotherapy. Studies have also found that high doses of sleeping pills increase the risk of cancer by a third.
American scientists compared the data on 10,5 people taking a wide range of sleeping drugs with the data on 23 otherwise similar people who did not take the pills. Those who took only 4-18 pills a year had a 3,6-fold higher risk of dying in the two and a half years of the study compared with the group not taking any sleeping pills. Scientists said this was their most striking discovery. The risk of death increased with the dose – people taking 18 to 132 pills a year were 4,4 times higher, with more than 132 pills a year – 5,3 times higher. The group on the highest annual dose group was prescribed 93 percent of all sleeping pills in the study. This group was also 35 percent more likely to develop life-threatening cancers. Overall, 295 (1,2%) of those who did not take the pills died during the studies, compared with 638 (6,2%) of those who took them.
Patients were taking a wide variety of popular prescription hypnotics, including benzodiazepines (such as temazepam and diazepam), next-generation drugs (zolpidem, zopiclone, and zaleplon), barbiturates, and sedative antihistamines.
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The researchers, led by Daniel Kripke of the Scripps Clinic Family Viterbi Sleep Center in California, said their study did not prove that the pills were the cause of death, but warranted preventive measures. They write that a “conclusive” randomized trial has never been conducted – possibly for reasons similar to the lack of randomized trials of smoking and parachute jumping.
They associate the use of sleeping pills in the US with hundreds of thousands of deaths each year, and claim in the BMJ Open that the modest benefits of taking these pills do not justify the significant risks. Experts believe that cognitive behavioral therapy may be more effective in chronic insomnia.
Although the authors were unable to prove that hypnotics caused premature death, their analyzes ruled out a number of other possible causative factors. So these findings raise important concerns and questions about the safety of sedatives and hypnotics, says Trish Groves, editor-in-chief of the journal.
“This is an important study, and while it is unlikely to radically change the way medication prescribes in the near term, it should raise awareness and remind patients and physicians of the potential dangers of prescribing sedative medications for insomnia,” said Nina Barnett of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. – Patients should not stop taking prescription medications right away. If you have concerns about your medications, talk to your pharmacist or doctor about other ways to treat sleep problems that do not require pills.
Professor Kevin Morgan, director of the Clinical Sleep Research Unit at Loughborough University, believes Dr. Kripke is absolutely right when he says that with the weight of the evidence we cannot ignore the issue. – It’s a public health problem.
There is a fundamental mismatch between what the pills can do and what patients expect of them. Prescribing sleeping pills is a short-term solution to a long-term problem. We should limit it. The person who takes sleeping pills may benefit from other treatments, but this is hampered by the inertia of the entire system. We could treat insomnia problems much better. According to guidelines, sleeping pills should only be used for a short time, but as Professor Morgan says, these rules are often violated.
“I agree that sleeping pills cause problems, but I find some of these results quite unacceptable,” said Malcolm Lader, professor of clinical psychopharmacology at King’s College London. – I particularly noted the statement that at 18 doses a year, the death rate increases threefold – it’s amazing because people would die like flies. The study has to be repeated on another group, and I think we must refrain from passing judgment until we have done more research.
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Text: Chris Smyth