ArticleThe international journal of neuropsychopharmacology2022
Benzodiazepine and Z-Drug Use and the Risk of Developing Dementia.
Article in The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Use of Drugs Affecting GABAMolecular neurobiology · 2025Pooled it
- Traditional East Asian Herbal Medicine for Post-Stroke Insomnia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Prescription of Psychotropic Drugs for Chronic Insomnia in Primary Care.Journal of sleep research · 2026Observational
- Positive Airway Pressure Therapy Initiation and Continued Benzodiazepine Use Among Chronic Drug Users.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- Sleep Abnormalities and Risk of Alzheimer's Disease.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2025Review
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- Association Between Hypnotics and Dementia: A Mini Narrative Review.Psychiatry investigation · 2024Article
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- Drugs with a negative impact on cognitive functions (Part 2): drug classes to consider while prescribing in CKD patients.Clinical kidney journal · 2023Review
- Switching to lemborexant for the management of insomnia in mental disorders: the SLIM study.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2023Article
- Stiff Person Spectrum Disorders-An Update and Outlook on Clinical, Pathophysiological and Treatment Perspectives.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Benzodiazepine-Receptor Agonist Utilization in Outpatients with Anxiety Disorder: A Retrospective Study Based on Electronic Healthcare Data from a Large General Tertiary Hospital.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBenzodiazepines (BZDs) and Z-drugs (BZDRs) are among the most prescribed medications for anxiety and insomnia, especially among older adults. Our objective was to investigate the association between the use of BZDRs and the risk of dementia.
methodsA community-based retrospective cohort study was conducted based on the data available from 2002 to 2015 in Catalan Health Service. This cohort included all BZDR users (N = 83 138) and nonusers (N = 84 652) older than 45 years. A minimum 5-year lag window and an adjustment for psychiatric problems were applied for the data analysis.
resultsThe hazard ratio (HR) for the risk of incident dementia among BZDR users was 1.22 (95% CI = 1.15 to 1.31). This risk was not significant after adjusting the data confounding factors (HR = 1.01; 95% CI = 0.94 to 1.08). We observed a higher risk with short-to-intermediate half-life BZDs (HR = 1.11; 95% CI = 1.04 to 1.20) and Z-drugs (HR = 1.20; 95% CI = 1.07 to 1.33) than for intermediate-to-long half-life BZDs (HR = 1.01; 95% CI = 0.94 to 1.08). We demonstrated a higher risk of incident dementia (HR = 1.23; 95% CI = 1.07 to 1.41 and odds ratio = 1.38; 95% CI = 1.27 to 1.50, respectively) in patients who received 91 to 180 defined daily doses (DDDs) and >180 DDDs compared with patients who received <90 DDD. Regarding patient sex, the risk of dementia was higher in women than in men.
conclusionWe found that the incidence of dementia was not higher among all BZDR users. Short half-life BZDs and Z-drugs increased the risk of dementia at the highest doses, especially in female patients, showing a dose-response relationship.
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