Taking sleeping pills increases the risk of premature death by 3 times
Last reviewed: 23.11.2021
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Even episodic administration of common sleeping pills improves the risk of premature death by three and a half times, and regular intake of their high doses increases the risk of developing malignant tumors. To this conclusion came the authors of the study from the Scripps clinic in San Diego. Their article was published on February 27 in the magazine BMJ Open.
These are often prescribed hypnotics such as benzodiazepine drugs - temazepam (restoril), nonbenzodiazepines - zolpidem (ambien), zopiclone, zaleplon, and barbiturates and antihistamines with sedative effect.
The authors of the study made their conclusions on the basis of statistical data on approximately ten and a half thousand patients, the average age of which was 54 years, who took sleeping pills over an average of two and a half years in the period from January 2002 to January 2007. The survival of this group was then compared to the survival of the control group, which included data on more than twenty-three and a half thousand people of different ages, gender and health status who did not take sleeping pills over the years.
The results of the study showed that those patients who resorted to sleeping pills even less than 18 times a year died three and a half times more often than those who did without sleeping pills. For those who resorted to medical treatment of insomnia up to 132 times a year, the risk of premature death increased almost four and a half times. If the sleeping pills were taken even more often, then this indicator reached the level of 5.3.
In addition, as a result of the study, the regular intake of high doses of sleeping pills also increases the risk of malignant tumors by 35 percent.
According to the authors of the work, in 2010 about six to ten percent of American adults regularly took sleeping pills. The production of hypnotic drugs of the new generation, which are considered less toxic due to the short period of action, is a rapidly growing segment of the US pharmaceutical industry. For four years - from 2006 to 2010 - this market grew by 23 percent. The country sold a sleeping pills almost two billion dollars.