A Troubling Potential Link Between Sleep Aids And Mental Illness

In today's "always on," high-stress world, it has become commonplace to turn to over-the-counter sleep aids for a little help with drifting off into dreamland at night. However, that habit, if made a consistent one, could lead to potentially serious damage when it comes to ones mental health. A new study zeroing in on anticholinergic drugs -- a category that includes common non-prescription sleeping aids and antihistamines like Benadryl -- found that the long-term use of such medications in higher doses can lead to an increased risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, in the future. It's the first study of its kind to prove this dose-response effect, meaning that the higher, cumulative consumption of the drug, the higher the likelihood of a person developing dementia later in life. It's also the first to suggest that this dementia risk may persist -- and be irreversible -- even years after people have stopped taking these drugs. The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine in late January. Dr. Shelly Gray, a professor at the University of Washington's School of Pharmacy and lead author of this study, originally intended to disprove this association that had been researched previously and published last year with her more rigorous study design, she told The Huffington Post. Dr. Gray and her colleagues tracked approximately 3,5000 men and women aged 65 and older who exhibited no dementia symptoms at the beginning of the study. Each participant was part...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news