2005 Study: "A 5-Year Prospective Assessment of the Risk...."

This study looks at the injury risks associated with various benzodiazepines in an elderly population.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2005.53108.x/abstract

One of the interesting details I noted was that studies that using prescription information rather than blood and urine information to determine benzodiazepine usage can affect the results. Self-reports of use, they say, are often incorrect. I think it's good to keep that in mind when reading any of these studies because it relates to accuracy of information collected. Here's the section that info is drawn from:

"Although comprehensive linked population databases

provide many advantages, these data sources have limitations

that need to be considered in the interpretation of the

results. Drug exposure assessment is based on prescription

refills and not direct measurement of drug use. Accurate

assessment of benzodiazepine use has proved to be challenging

because self-report has been shown to underestimate

use by as much as 40% when compared with urine

and blood analysis.44 Prescription refills have been shown

to provide a reasonably accurate measure of drug use with

many medications,45,46 but when benzodiazepines are prescribed

on an as-needed (PRN) basis for problems such as

insomnia,1,47 refill measurement could misclassify current

drug use and dose, likely leading to an attenuation of the

estimated effect of drug use on the risk of injury. In the few

studies that have compared the risk associated with PRN

and non-PRN benzodiazepine prescriptions, the risk of falls

and hip fracture was similar or even modestly higher for

PRN prescriptions."21

And from the conclusion, it says:

"Future research needs to investigate the possible reasons

for differences in injury risk between medications. Differences

in drug potency, the affinity of a benzodiazepine for its

receptors, may be one explanation for dose-related differences

between drugs. Potency has been noted to vary between

benzodiazepines independent of half-life."27,50

The bottom line, of course, is that benzodiazepines pose particular risks to elderly people. It is my great hope, however, that information from such studies will be used to safeguard ALL people from unnecessary risks posed by benzodiazepines.