Experts have announced quite threatening message for people who are actively taking sleeping pills – products that are used around the world by millions of people may increase the risk of early death. This study has been made by researchers of Rochester University Medical Center who together with colleagues from the Scripps Clinic Sleep Center in California have announced: the higher is the dose of sleeping pills patient is taking, the greater is the risk of early death, cancer and other diseases. According to the study, the risk of early death increases when patient takes more than 18 tablets per year. However, British experts have announced that patients shouldn’t stop taking their prescribed medication without consulting their family doctor.
Studies have shown that people who take sleeping pills are in a 5 times greater risk of early death if we compare these patients with those who don’t take such medicine. The biggest risk is for those whose annual intake of sleep pills is from 18 to 132 tablets. People using the lowest dose of sleeping pills, from 4 to 18 tablets per year, are in 3.6 times higher risk of early death. The risk of early death increases by 5.3 times when the person consumes more than 132 pills per year. Note that some of medications may increase the risk of early death by 5.7 times.
According to researchers, almost 93 percent of all the people who were included into this study have been found to consume the highest dose of sleeping pills. The biggest negative impact caused by sleeping pills was found for patients of 18-55 years old.