Colleagues, the following is FYI and does not necessarily reflect my own
opinion. I have no further knowledge of the topic. If you do not wish to
receive these posts, set your email filter to filter out any messages
coming from @nutritionucanlivewith.com and the program will remove
anything coming from me.
---------------------------------------------------------
Source: British Medical Journal
Released: Wed 09-Nov-2005, 13:00 ET
Risks of Taking Sedatives for Insomnia in Older People
Newswise For older people, the risks outweigh the benefits of taking
sleeping pills and other sedatives, say researchers in this weeks BMJ.
Insomnia can often affect the quality of life for older people and
between 5% and 33% of older people in the UK are prescribed sleeping
pills such as benzodiazepine.
But in an analysis of 24 studies carried out between 1966 and 2003,
researchers found that the adverse results for older people taking
sedatives such as dizziness, loss of balance, falls, and
disorientation were statistically significant enough to make them
think non-drug treatments could be a better approach to tackling insomnia.
The 24 studies included 2,417 participants in total and looked at the
effects of sedative hypnotics (sedatives), including over the counter
medications such as antihistamines, and prescription only drugs like
benzodiazepine. Research only included cases where people who were 60
and above had been taking them for five consecutive nights, compared to
people taking placebos.
Effects such as dizziness or loss of balance psychomotor-type
side-effects were reported in 13 studies (1,016 participants). Seven
of the 59 psychomotor effects that were reported in these studies were
serious events six falls and one car crash.
But the researchers also found there were many potential benefits for
people taking sedatives such as improved quality of sleep (more sound
uninterrupted sleep), ease of getting to sleep and total sleep time.
On balance however, they argue that although treatment with sedative
hypnotics improves aspects of sleep, the risk of adverse effects rises
with such treatment. There are also indicators that older patients are
more than twice as likely to experience an adverse event as they are to
gain a better quality of sleep from such sedatives. But they stress that
this comparison is only a rough indicator because more studies
contributed information on harmful events than on sleep benefits.
Improvements in sleep with sedative use are statistically significant,
but the size of the effect is small, say the authors. In people over
60, the benefits of these drugs may not justify the increased risk,
they conclude.
Click here to view full paper:
http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/november/Sedatives.pdf
--
Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD < [log in to unmask] >
"Ask the Parkinson Dietitian" http://www.parkinson.org/
"Eat well, stay well with Parkinson's disease"
"Parkinson's disease: Guidelines for Medical Nutrition Therapy"
http://www.nutritionucanlivewith.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent through the Ageing in Europe
mailing list.
Please visit the homepage of the ESA Research Network
on Ageing in Europe at http://www.ageing-in-europe.de
----------------------------------------------------------------
|