A hard pill to swallow: Is it worth the risk for a better night’s sleep?

It’s hard to get a better night’s sleep as you get older – it’s just a fact of life. Some of us resort to more natural methods like a cup of tea or a bath to help us sleep better, but for chronic insomniacs, they have been left with no choice but to take sleeping tablets. There’s the usual side effects: changes in appetite, diarrhoea, dizziness, headache and impairment, but there’s another unpublicised, serious side effect that researchers are much more worried about…

Benzodiazepines (prescribed drugs for anxiety and insomnia) have been linked to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, say French and Canadian researchers. Dr Bryce Vissel from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research says the study is particularly important given the concerns that elderly patients may sometimes be over-medicated. This discovery hits home for a lot of us as up to 50 per cent of older adults use these medicines.

Previously it has been easy to dismiss these long term consequences as regular cognitive impairment as we age but to find out it’s linked to something a lot of us take every day is quite alarming and should be considered by us all.

It is still Dementia Awareness Month in Australia and even as September passes, it will continue to remain a major health issue that needs further research. Currently, 332,000 Australians live with dementia however it continues to get higher…could it be from these medications our doctors prescribe with no question? I’ve had doctors who barely listen to your symptoms before writing a script. So who is responsible for contributing to this devastating linkage to Alzheimer’s? Us or our doctors? Surely it isn’t our fault if we have insomnia, but should medical professionals be offering other solutions instead of these damaging chemical tablets?

The increased risk of contracting Alzheimer’s after just three months of using benzodiazepines is 51 per cent and the risk only soars as patients continue use.

Even the American Geriatrics Society has updated its list of inappropriate drugs to include these medicines due to their unwanted cognitive side effects.

Dr Liz Coulthard, Consultant Senior Lecturer in Dementia Neurology at the University of Bristol says that “This work provides yet another reason to avoid prescription of benzodiazepines for anything other than very short term relief of insomnia or anxiety. In addition to short term cognitive impairment, falls and car accidents already known to be associated with benzodiazepine use, there is a hint from this study that these drugs might in some way increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease”.

The big question is, should we continue to take these tablets knowing that they put us at greater risk or can it be looked over as they do really work and are valuable in so many of our lives? Should we look for more long-term solutions if we are suffering from sleep-related illnesses or just swallow the pill?

What do you think?