For their research, the team from the University of Warwick, Keele University and St. George’s Hospital compiled data on more than 100,000 individuals, roughly one-third of whom had filled prescriptions for one or more of the aforementioned drugs, or for other kinds of sleeping medications like Sonata (zaleplon) and Lunesta (eszopiclone). Nearly 70,000 controls who did not take the drugs, but were of similar age and practice, were also included for comparison.
After accounting for a wide variety of influencing factors like alcohol use, socioeconomic status, age and various other health and behavioral characteristics, the team observed specific dose-response associations between each class of drug and likelihood of early death. Based on the data, taking such drugs caused four excess deaths per every 100 participants; non-drugged individuals experienced fewer deaths.
In this large cohort of patients attending UK primary care, anxiolytic [anxiety] and hypnotic drugs were associated with significantly increased risk of mortality over a seven year period, after adjusting for a range of potential confounders,” wrote the authors in their conclusion.