2012 Study: "Assessing the cumulative effects....."

The full title of this study is:

"Assessing the cumulative effects of exposure to selected benzodiazepines on the risk of fall-related injuries in the elderly."

And here's the link to the abstract:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22059800

And here's the link to the full study:

http://www.academia.edu/6908895/Assessing_the_cumulative_effects_of_exposure_to_selected_benzodiazepines_on_the_risk_of_fall-related_injuries_in_the_elderly

For those of us who are dealing with ongoing dizziness and disequilibrium, the effects of cumulative doses of benzodiazepines are of interest. The study looked at the use of seven different benzodiazepines in an elderly population and used a  "weighted cumulative exposure" model. While the different benzos that were studied didn't all seem to have the same outcome, the authors did point out that it's important to consider cumulative effects when assessing the reason for the falls, not just the size of the dose, the timing of the dose or the duration of use.

"Tolerance" effects are discussed a bit in the study, but "withdrawal" is only mentioned once in my reading. Here's an excerpt:

"the possibly increased risk of fall-related injuries

associated with cumulative use of temazepam may

be driven mostly by a withdrawal effect, especially

among elderly who have been using it over a

prolonged period. This conjecture needs, of course,

to be corroborated by future studies."

For those of us in the "floaty boat" (common to many in withdrawal), I think we'd like to see a study that looks at the effect of cumulative doses of benzodiazepines taken over many years, with a specific focus on dizziness/disequlibrium during the withdrawal period. If it has already been done, I haven't come across it. In the meantime, we have an informal study of BB members that tells us that it DOES go away, but we have to be careful not to fall while waiting for that to happen. :-)