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Sleep can be adversely affected by benzodiazepine dependence. Possible adverse effects on sleep include induction or worsening of sleep disordered breathing. Like alcohol, benzodiazepines are commonly used to treat insomnia in the short term (both prescribed and self-medicated), but worsen sleep in the long term.
Falls are the leading cause of both nonfatal and fatal injuries among older adults, with 25% of people ages 65 and over suffering from a serious fall every year — that's 29 million bad falls and ...
[60] Sedation is the side effect people taking lorazepam most frequently report. In a group of around 3,500 people treated for anxiety, the most common side effects complained of from lorazepam were sedation (15.9%), dizziness (6.9%), weakness (4.2%), and unsteadiness (3.4%). Side effects such as sedation and unsteadiness increased with age. [61]
In a Swedish retrospective study of deaths of 1987, in 159 of 1587 autopsy cases benzodiazepines were found. In 44 of these cases the cause of death was natural causes or unclear. The remaining 115 deaths were due to accidents (N = 16), suicide (N = 60), drug addiction (N = 29) or alcoholism (N = 10). In a comparison of suicides and natural ...
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Although benzodiazepines are much safer in overdose than their predecessors, the barbiturates, they can still cause problems in overdose. [19] Taken alone, they rarely cause severe complications in overdose; [167] statistics in England showed that benzodiazepines were responsible for 3.8% of all deaths by poisoning from a single drug. [21]
[20] [127] Symptoms continue to improve over time, often to the point where people eventually resume their normal lives, even after years of incapacity. [25] A slow withdrawal rate significantly reduces the risk of a protracted or severe withdrawal state. Protracted withdrawal symptoms can be punctuated by periods of good days and bad days.
Failure to treat benzodiazepine dependence in the elderly can cause serious medical complications. [14] The elderly have less cognitive reserve and are more sensitive to the short (e.g., in between dose withdrawal) and protracted withdrawal effects of benzodiazepines, as well as the side-effects both from short-term and long-term use.