Topic: Sleeping Pills and Early Mortality

[Plastique]

http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000850.full

Damn it, my occasional hypnotic use used to be so floaty and soothing. Now it'll be floaty, soothing, and paranoia-inducing.

[Jolimont]

That's why I say Benadryl rules!

[Karyn]

Well crap.

[Plastique]

Disappointed an expert hasn't come in and repudiated this study as a hollow sham and posted irrefutable evidence that sleeping pills are the elixir of eternal youth.

[Anders]

It can still be healthier than insomnia.

ETA: But it does make me worry about the health for some of the women who I dated.

[Tatyana]

I just had a quick scan of the article, I am going to have to do a bit more of an in-depth read and side research, but one thing that jumped out for me is if the confounding factors included things like accidents.

As insomnia increase the risk of accidents and people who take sleeping tablets obviously have insomnia, but I would also think that being under the influence of sleeping tablets might also increase the risk of accidents.

This may have been included in the study, but I didn't see it specifically mentioned.

[Karyn]

I know of several people who have died from excessive use of sleeping pills.  They were using them for years, developed a tolerance, started taking more, and then one night their respiratory system just stopped working.  My original read of the article didn't sound like they were including those people in the numbers, but I could have read it wrong.  Those anecdotes alone make me weary of using sleeping pills.

[jt512]

I just had a quick scan of the article, I am going to have to do a bit more of an in-depth read and side research, but one thing that jumped out for me is if the confounding factors included things like accidents.

As insomnia increase the risk of accidents and people who take sleeping tablets obviously have insomnia, but I would also think that being under the influence of sleeping tablets might also increase the risk of accidents.

This may have been included in the study, but I didn't see it specifically mentioned.

The clinical outcome of the study was death from any cause.  Accident, then, would be a mechanism, not a confounder.  Edit: I partly take that back.  I think I see what you mean.  Accidents caused by insomnia would be a counfounder, but accidents caused by side effects from sleeping pills would be a mechanism.

@Karyn: Any deaths by overdose would be included in the study.

Jay

[Tatyana]

I just had a quick scan of the article, I am going to have to do a bit more of an in-depth read and side research, but one thing that jumped out for me is if the confounding factors included things like accidents.

As insomnia increase the risk of accidents and people who take sleeping tablets obviously have insomnia, but I would also think that being under the influence of sleeping tablets might also increase the risk of accidents.

This may have been included in the study, but I didn't see it specifically mentioned.

This is where a few case studies of the people with insomnia who were taking sleeping pills died to help to determine the mechanism.

Another interesting follow on study would be to compare patients with insomnia, a group that takes sleeping pills and a group that doesn't and see what the mortality rates are (and a control group for the background mortality rate).
The clinical outcome of the study was death from any cause.  Accident, then, would be a mechanism, not a confounder.  Edit: I partly take that back.  I think I see what you mean.  Accidents caused by insomnia would be a counfounder, but accidents caused by side effects from sleeping pills would be a mechanism.

@Karyn: Any deaths by overdose would be included in the study.

Jay