Clearing the confounding confusion: Benzodiazepines and the risk of dementia?
Only a modest increase in dementia risk was seen in the high-dose benzodiazepine users. This association appears to be driven by the confounding due to higher rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, and anxiety among users. Using restriction or HDPS to better control for confounding effects eliminates the association. While benzodiazepines do not appear to be a significant risk factor for dementia, tolerance, dependency and adverse effects caution against their long-term use.
Authors
- I fan Kuo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2660-2777)
- Kevin J. Friesen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6038-550X)
- Alexander Singer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5436-8394)
- Shawn Bugden (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9842-5909)
- Jamie Falk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4029-320X)
Institutions
- Memorial University of Newfoundland (CA)
- Ministry of Health (CA)
- University of Manitoba (CA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
- Published
- 2025-04-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2025.105850
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Epilepsy research and treatment
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.94