Thursday 17 April 2014

Info may prompt seniors to taper off sleeping pills

By Anne Harding NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older people are willing and able to get themselves off medications like sleeping pills once they're informed of the potential harms, according to a new Canadian study. "Even among patients who have been taking sleeping pills for 30 years, many of them in their 80s and 90s were able to get off the sleeping pills once they realized that these pills could cause falls, memory problems and car accidents," lead author Dr. Cara Tannenbaum of the University of Montreal Reuters Health. While Valium, Xanax and similar medications, known as benzodiazepines, are not recommended for older adults given such risks, up to one-third of older adults still take them, usually to treat insomnia or anxiety, according to Tannenbaum and her colleagues. Doctors know about the dangers these drugs pose to their patients, the investigators write in JAMA Internal Medicine, but nearly half say they renew benzodiazepine prescriptions for their older patients anyhow, "citing patient dependence and benefit as justifications." Tannenbaum's team wanted to see whether educating older patients taking benzodiazepines about the risks would be an effective way to encourage some to stop using the drugs. via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News Read More Here..

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