Benzodiazepine and Alzheimers
2014-09-16 18:34:14.703231+02 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
Benzodiazepine use may raise risk of Alzheimer’s disease. So if you were taking Valium or Xanax to deal with your anxieties, well... here's something to be anxious about.
People who had taken a benzodiazepine for three months or less had about the same dementia risk as those who had never taken one. Taking the drug for three to six months raised the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by 32%, and taking it for more than six months boosted the risk by 84%.
The long acting versions (diazepam (Valium) and flurazepam (Dalmane)) are a bigger risk than the short-acting (like triazolam (Halcion), lorazepam (Ativan), alprazolam (Xanax), and temazepam (Restoril)).
The study is Benzodiazepine use and risk of Alzheimer’s disease: case-control study: BMJ 2014; 349 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g5205 (Published 09 September 2014).