Frequent Use of Medications for Sleep May Increase Dementia Risk, Especially Among Older White Adults

Frequent use of sleep medications appears to be associated with increased long-term risk of dementia, particularly among older white adults, according to research presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Los Angeles this week.“Based on our findings, we recommend that clinicians make more effort to be aware of their patients’ sleep problems including use of sleep aids,” said lead study author Yue Leng, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, in apress release.Leng and colleagues studied 3,068 black and white community-dwelling older adults aged 70 to 79 years who did not have dementia and were enrolled in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study. At the beginning of the study, the participants were asked to rate their use of “sleeping pills or other medication” to help them sleep using the following responses: “never,” “rarely (once a month or less),” “sometimes (2 to 4 times per month),” “often (5 to 15 times per month),” or “almost always (16 to 30 times per month).”A total of 147 (4.8%) participants reported taking sleep medications “sometimes,” and 172 (5.6%) reported “often” or “almost always.” A total of 34 black participants (2.7%) and 138 white participants (7.7%) reported taking sleep medications “often” or “almost always.”The researchers tracked whether the participants experienced dementia over a 15-year period using hospital records and records of dementia medication u...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Association International Conference dementia Los Angeles older white adults sleep medications Source Type: research