Prolonged Use of Benzodiazepines for Sleep Disturbances in the Elderly: Quality of Sleep and Related Comorbidities

Introduction: Insomnia is frequently found in older people, and may be symptomatic of underlying comorbid conditions. The use of drug therapy for the symptomatic relief of insomnia is widespread, with the most common class of agents used for this indication being benzodiazepines.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between comorbidities and the associated use of benzodiazepines among older people living in the community.

Methods: We evaluated a sample of 27 subjects who were using benzodiazepines for at least 3 months, compared to 33 non-users constituting the control group.

Results: Those using benzodiazepines had higher comorbidity, more impaired cognition, greater anxiety, and poorer sleep quality than controls. However, based on a multivariate logistic regression model, only poor quality of sleep correlated significantly with the prolonged use of benzodiazepines (OR=1.96, 95% CI= 1.34-2.85, p<0.01).

Conclusion: This small study strengthens the need to limit the use of this class of drugs in older people with sleep disturbances.