Study Links Anti-anxiety Drugs and Sleeping Pills to Increased Risk of Death

Researchers at the University of Warwick say that  anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills up the risk of  mortality.

The researchers claim that several anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs or hypnotic drugs (sleeping pills) are tied to a double risk of death.

"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 minimise over reliance on anxiolytics and sleeping pills. 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." Scott Weich, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Warwick explained 

The association remained strong even after considering certain factors such as age, smoking, use of alcohol and socioeconomic status. Most importantly the researchers controlled certain risk factors like sleep disorders, anxiety disorders and other psychiatric illnesses.

The study included 34,727 people of ages 16 and above who received their first prescription between 1998 and 2001. They were follower for seven and a half years from the time they first got their prescriptions for either anti-anxiety drug or sleeping pills. They also looked at 69, 418 patients with no prescriptions for such drugs and were treated as controls.

The most commonly prescribed drug class was Benzodiazepines including diazepam and temazepam. The study also evaluated the effects of two other groups of drugs called the 'Z-drugs' and other anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs.  Most of the patients in the study group  received one drug over the course of the study and 5 percent of them received prescriptions for drugs from all the three drug groups.

The researchers suggest that the findings need to be interpreted carefully.The finding was documented in BMJ.