Effect of anxiolytic and hypnotic drug prescriptions on mortality hazards: retrospective cohort study.

摘要: Objective To test the hypothesis that people taking anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs are at increased risk of premature mortality, using primary care prescription records after adjusting for a wide range potential confounders. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting 273 UK practices contributing data to General Practice Research Database. Participants 34 727 patients aged 16 years older first prescribed or drugs, both, between 1998 2001, 69 418 with no prescriptions such (controls) matched by age, sex, practice. Patients were followed-up mean 7.6 (range 0.1-13.4 years). Main outcome All cause mortality ascertained from practice records. Results Physical psychiatric comorbidities prescribing non-study significantly more prevalent among those study than controls. The age adjusted hazard ratio during whole follow-up period use any drug in year recruitment was 3.46 (95% confidence interval 3.34 3.59) 3.32 (3.19 3.45) other confounders. Dose-response associations found all three classes (benzodiazepines, Z (zaleplon, zolpidem, zopiclone), drugs). After excluding deaths year, there approximately four excess linked per 100 followed an average their prescription. Conclusions In this large attending care, associated over seven period, As observational findings, however, these results prone bias arising unmeasured residual confounding.