Older people taking psychiatric medications, such as Valium or Xanax, may have an increased risk of dementia or dementia, a new study by French scientists suggests.
People over 65 who have taken drugs known as benzodiazepines are 50% more likely to develop dementia for 15 years.
Researchers observed 1,000 elderly people living in France who, at the beginning of the study, did not suffer from dementia and did not take benzodiazepines. Over the next five years, 95 participants started taking benzodiazepines.
Fifteen years later, 253 cases of dementia were confirmed - 3.2 cases per 100 people among those who did not take benzodiazepines, and 4.8 per 100 people among those who took them.
Benzodiazepines are commonly prescribed medications used to treat symptoms of anxiety and sleep disorders.
"Given the extent to which benzodiazepines are prescribed and the number of potential side effects of this class of drugs, you need to caution against their indiscriminate, widespread use," the researchers say.
If possible, the use of such drugs should be limited to several weeks, the researchers say. Currently, despite evidence that the drugs are only effective for a short time, many people have been taking them for many years.
In the future, scientists are going to study the effect of doses of drugs of this class on the likelihood of dementia, as well as how the use of these drugs can be associated with dementia in young people.
