Study, May/16: Benzodiazepines NOT associated with progressive cognitive decline

This Canadian/Japanese study appears to be providing some positive results for those of us concerned about the possibility of cognitive decline as a result of taking benzodiazepines. The full title of the study is "Benzodiazepine Use Attenuates Cortical β-Amyloid and is Not Associated with Progressive Cognitive Decline in Nondemented Elderly Adults: A Pilot Study Using F18-Florbetapir Positron Emission Tomography."

 

For reference, cortical beta amyloid is explained in Wikipedia as follows:

 

"Senile plaques (also known as neuritic plaques) are extracellular deposits of amyloid beta in the grey matter of the brain."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senile_plaques

 

And here's the conclusion from the study:

 

"CONCLUSION: Previous BZD use was associated with lower cortical Aβ levels in nondemented elderly control subjects. Future studies with larger samples are required to replicate our findings."

 

Please, Buddies, have a look and weigh in on this one! Am I reading this correctly?! It appears to be good news! Of course, the last line of the conclusion refers to the need for "larger samples", so, as always, more study is required before anything can be said with certainty. However, I'm sure everyone around here is ready to read some positive news for a change.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27538351

 

 

You forgot to add the study link, Lap. 

Hopefully others will come along and comment, Lap.

 

My quick 15 second amateur take?  It means nothing.  Zip.  Zero.  Nada. 

From beginning ... i.e. the role/importance of Cortical β-Amyloid? How well studied is it?  ... to end (Also, no differences were found in global cognitive function and changes in cortical Aβ over 2 years between continuous BZD users (N = 15) and the matched nonuser group (N = 15).

 

Who funded the study, I didn't see it anywhere, did you?

 

Hopefully others will come along and chime in for you too, maybe read things into it that I couldn't.

 

By the way, your brain, Madame is perfectly fine.  More than fine! 

 

 

abcd, what it's saying to me is that there are no negative changes in the beta amyloid, which means there is no plaque, which is one of the signs of dementia. In the conclusion, it says there's actually LOWER cortical beta amyloid levels in those who do not have dementia and who previously used BZDs. And there were no negative changes in cognitive functioning either.

 

The lack of negative effects from the BZDs means it's a positive result for this group.

 

Again, it's a small sample and more study is needed, but this study has shown no negative effects in the cortical beta amyloid from taking BZDs.

Hey Lapsy.  I confess, I started typing my thoughts in detail, and how I reached my opinion but had to abort and deleted it.  Sucks, I'm just too impaired to type much.  But, yes, I did read up quite a bit on everything.  Maybe I'll pm you later, okay, or try and come back.  But I really would like to know who funded that study. 

I've looked at numerous versions of the abstract and none show who funded the study. They do show the author affiliations, though, i.e. universities in Toronto, Montreal and Tokyo.

 

http://analyzedirect.com/benzodiazepine-use-attenuates-cortical-beta-amyloid-not-associated-progressive-cognitive-decline-non-demented-elderly-adults-pilot-study-using-f18-florbetapir-positron-emission-tomo/

 

And I just found this article, which provides a range of opinions on the study's outcome. It's called "Long-term Benzodiazepine Use: No Risk for Cognitive Decline?"

 

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/864099

 

It looks like I've interpreted the article correctly, but of course, the significance of the study is in question due to the sample group. Also, the well-known side effects of benzodiazepines are still there. I think everyone is in agreement on that one.

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, perfect, Lap.  That Medscape article helps say what I was trying to.    Here, in part, why it doesn't hold any water with me, my reasoning ...

 

• 
  "The conclusions are at best inconclusive," said Josepha Cheong, MD, professor of psychiatry, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, who was asked to comment on this study for Medscape Medical News.
   
  "Just because it does not 'prove' that there is a direct link between benzodiazepine use and the development of cognitive decline or dementia, it does not necessarily disprove that there is a link between benzodiazepines and cognitive decline," Dr Cheong said.[/i]
   
   
  
• Weighing in with his views, Donovan T. Maust, MD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, noted that the authors started from the idea that both abnormal neuronal excitability and amyloid are features of Alzheimer's disease...... Because the sample is so small and ADNI patients are not at all representative of the general population  ― for example, the average years of education in the benzodiazepine group was more than 16 years ― these results should not be generalized to the average patient," he said.
  

 

Abnormal neuronal excitability and amyloid are features of Alzheimer's disease?  Are they?  Isn't the reality that they know absolutely nothing about Alzheimers?  Hypotheses and speculation.  Building from a cracked/shaky foundation.  No?

 

And they used the ADNI database ... They used data from the ADNI database to determine whether the level of cortical beta-amyloid was decreased in elderly benzodiazepine users compared with matched patients who did not use benzodiazepines.

Read here about ADNI ... http://www.adni-info.org/

 

Hope you can follow my breadcrumbs?  I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in my opinion, it's flawed and ridiculous from A-Z (beginning to end).  And what about all the variables too?  Not to mention the obvious, a study of FIFTEEN men.  Fifteen?  Seriously!    So for me, it goes in one ear (eye? lol) and out the other.  Worth nada, not worth the paper it's printed on and I find it fascinating that something like this can even get published.  I hope the media doesn't pick it up, can you imagine the headlines?  Benzos suddenly looking very good for the elderly.  Yikes.

 

 

 

PS - It also mentions who funded the study, so thanks again for that link, Lap.

 

The study was sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. Dr Graff-Guerrero, Dr Cheong, and Dr Maust report no relevant financial relationships.

 

I was wondering whether there was some interest from Big Pharma in this type of "positive" outcome but it doesn't appear to be the case with this particular study.  Although it doesn't mention whether any of the other authors had any financial relationships.  Who knows?  I'm wondering whether they're trying to build a case for new Alzheimer's drugs.  Here, for example, by Satori Pharmaceuticals.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17716740

National Institute on Aging and Big Pharma sleep in the same bed, I'll bet.  Big Pharma needs more support to keep pumping out the pills and keep them in the marketplace, so profits and stocks won't plunge.  Benzo's are big money-makers.  15 subjects?  Who would ever take this study as anything but nonsense.  Not all people or elderly who take benzo's get dementia, but  there are too many studies out there showing an association between benzo use and dementia with huge numbers of subjects in their studies.  They also did the cohort studies where they went back through medical records of thousands of patients and found a link between benzo use and dementia.

National Institute on Aging and Big Pharma sleep in the same bed, I'll bet.  Big Pharma needs more support to keep pumping out the pills and keep them in the marketplace, so profits and stocks won't plunge. 

 

Well, funny you should say that, Becks.  After my last post, look what I found! 

 

 

"Supported by a public-private partnership, with $33.2 million from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, the Generation Study will be conducted at about 90 sites in North America, Europe, and Australia, about half of them in the United States. The research team plans to enroll 1,340 cognitively normal adults, age 60 to 75, who will be randomly assigned to take either a test drug or a placebo for at least 5 years.

 

The NIA-supported Banner Alzheimer’s Institute (BAI), based in Phoenix, Ariz., is running the trial with Novartis Pharmaceuticals, which is providing the drugs to be tested, CAD106 and CNP520, and Amgen, which helped develop CNP520".

 

 

This really is beyond outrageous!!!

 

 

"People at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease to test prevention drugs

August 23, 2016

 

Attacking an early Alzheimer’s culprit

 

The failure of past anti-amyloid drugs to stop Alzheimer’s in people with mild to moderate dementia has led researchers to test some of the same drugs,  and new ones, earlier in the disease process, when therapies might be most effective at altering the course of the disease.

In a handful of prevention trials, experimental therapies are being tested in symptom-free people who, because of their age, genes, or amyloid levels in the brain, are most likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease—sooner rather than later.

 

“The results of this and our other prevention trials will help us learn whether and how anti-amyloid therapies can slow or perhaps prevent cognitive decline in individuals who are most likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease,” said Laurie Ryan, Ph.D., chief of the Dementias of Aging branch at NIA’s Division of Neuroscience. “We’ll also gain valuable biomarker data that will be shared with the wider scientific community.”

 

She added, “The ultimate goal is to find a way to block Alzheimer’s damage in the brain at the earliest possible point, long before symptoms appear, and to prevent a disease that burdens more than 5 million Americans and many more around the world.”" 

 

https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/features/people-genetic-risk-alzheimers-disease-test-prevention-drugs

 

 

Well, I guess we now have our answer, right?  Just like "serotonin = depression", they're currently in the process of setting the stage for "beta amyloid = alzheimers". 

Well, abcd, it appears you've been a very busy gal overnight! While I was trying unsuccessfully to sleep, you were doing research. Excellent work!

Excellent sleuthing abcd!  Novartis and the NIA are in bed with each other, as suspected and these bogus anti-Alzheimer drugs will be their new $$$-maker, as they are exhausting their other avenues such as SSRIs.  Disgusting and gross and outrageous. 

We live in a fallen world.  All the big corporations and big fed agencies are all insane.  Both my parents worked for the federal gov. until they both retired.  I heard their stories every night ad nauseum.  Father, career military.  After awhile you learn how things work.  Every company I ever worked for was effed up in a big way once you looked closely enough.  Big Pharma pulls the strings and dictates what studies "need" done, for the most part.  There is "consulting" between the fed. med. agencies and Big Pharma and big business.  Gotta keep the drugs in the pipeline.  If we took everyone off their head meds, our world would completely fall apart and that means all the industries would crash.  Stocks would plummet and we'd all end up on the losing end of the stick.  Big Pharma is an ESSENTIAL part of our economy and head meds are probably the biggest money-makers for them.  Billions in profits every year.  Can't expose the benzo and head med problem.  They won't allow it.

I, for one, will take at least some positive information from the results of this small and obviously inconclusive study. No one claimed that it was conclusive, but it may provide a piece of a larger puzzle, which is how research usually works. It can take years to find medical answers. Studies need to be repeated, and each study can become part of a meta-analysis. 

 

What about antibiotics? What about insulin? What about anesthetics? Medications can be life-saving and life-enhancing where needed. Research is the only way to get there.

 

Just to clarify, no drugs were being tested in this particular study. They were looking at PET scans of the brains of people who have taken benzodiazepines and assessing the effects.

 

By the way, check out the Cochrane Collaboration if you're interested in those who are doing good work in the field of research. They post their findings there.

 

http://www.cochrane.org/about-us

 

Who are we?

We are a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers, and people interested in health.

 

Cochrane contributors - 37,000 from more than 130 countries - work together to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. Many of our contributors are world leaders in their fields - medicine, health policy, research methodology, or consumer advocacy - and our groups are situated in some of the world's most respected academic and medical institutions. Contact us for more information.

 

Our work is recognized as representing an international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.

 

 

Lap, I couldn't disagree with you more.  What you say sounds all fine and dandy in principle and in a perfect world but I could not find a smidgen of anything positive here.  Quite the contrary!!!!  There clearly appears to be something much larger and way more sinister at play with this jigsaw piece, if one takes the time to peruse the links I provided and to apply some critical thinking.  The fact that dubious "junk science" such as this will lay the foundation for future studies, will be cited in numerous other articles, and will be included in meta-analyses, is appalling . Garbage in, garbage out.  And not by chance, either.  It's all by design.  This is Big Pharma at work and we, the people, suffer the horrific consequences.

 

Unfortunately, most people don't have the time, interest or inclination to delve deeper and, thus, they read the title, skim through to the conclusion and accept it all at face value.  Can you imagine if the media picked this up? 

 

 

 

Just to clarify, no drugs were being tested in this particular study. They were looking at PET scans of the brains of people who have taken benzodiazepines and assessing the effects.

 

Yes, understood.  Pet scans and cognitive screening tests.

 

 

 

By the way, check out the Cochrane Collaboration if you're interested in those who are doing good work in the field of research. They post their findings there.

 

http://www.cochrane.org/about-us

 

Heard of them, sounds good, will be interesting to read more, thanks for the link! 

Excellent sleuthing abcd!  Novartis and the NIA are in bed with each other, as suspected and these bogus anti-Alzheimer drugs will be their new $$$-maker, as they are exhausting their other avenues such as SSRIs.  Disgusting and gross and outrageous. 

 

Yes.  Perfectly, perfectly healthy people!!!  And don't quote me, but did I read they're interested in the "elderly" of 55 plus?  Aaaarg!

And why not give chemo to perfectly healthy "at risk" people while they're about it?  It's like a horror movie, isn't it?  Except this is exactly what's going on.  What a damn, damn shame. 

 

 

The failure of past anti-amyloid drugs to stop Alzheimer’s in people with mild to moderate dementia has led researchers to test some of the same drugs,  and new ones, earlier in the disease process, when therapies might be most effective at altering the course of the disease.

In a handful of prevention trials, experimental therapies are being tested in symptom-free people who, because of their age, genes, or amyloid levels in the brain, are most likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease—sooner rather than later.

 

To me, this seems to be key.  They've already developed the (*USELESS*, *FAILED*) drugs and now they're going about trying to find a market for them.  Symptom-free people, how perfect!  How much easier it'll be to design their studies and wangle the data to point to successful outcomes. There's HUGE money in this for them, absolutely HUGE.  A med to prevent Alzheimers, OMG, can you imagine the hype over that, and what a broad market they'll have at their disposal.  Despicable.

Big Pharma will reign in millions of more symptom-free, healthy ppl. to pick their pockets.  Ppl. will fall for that.  It's horrible.  More big money for Big Pharma.  They'll always looking for ppl. to rob.

Never mind just picking our pockets, Becks, it's how badly they're destroying our health and quality of life.  The absolute antithesis of the (once) definition of medicine, isn't it? 

 

 

Never mind just picking our pockets, Becks, it's how badly they're destroying our health and quality of life.  The absolute antithesis of the (once) definition of medicine, isn't it? 

 

yep.  I've got serious cognitive decline and I know it's from the benzo's and Z-drugs.  I had a good mind before I went into tolerance and interdose withdrawal.  They can put out all the studies they want to saying it ain't so, but I know from personal experience, they've destroyed my mind.  I have a genetic predisposition for dementia, since my father had early-onset dementia starting in his late forties and fifties.  I was at risk.  Some ppl. aren't.  They should be honest and do the right research and warn ppl. before giving them these drugs.  If even one person gets dementia from these drugs, then these drugs cause dementia.  Eating a banana doesn't cause dementia or maim ppl. 

Becks, don't talk yourself into having dementia.  You still have a damn good brain and that's a fact, it shows very clearly here!!!  You're just in a very sucky situation which would drive any one of us to feel like we had "dementia".    If you were able to be in a completely different environment (less stress, etc.) I have no doubt you'd see some miraculous changes in yourself.  It's so tough, I'm so sorry.  Hugs.

 

Yes, I'm in the worst environment imaginable for healing.  The stimulation on my brain is so severe every single day.  Even a normal healthy person would lose mental functioning from the over-stimulation.  EXTREME noise all day long and it never stops.  No wonder my mental functioning is so compromised and I feel like I've got dementia.  Older women who are past menopause need peace and calm in their environments.  I don't have that.  It's killing off my brain cells--all the glutamate storming which leads to dementia.  I'm still convinced I have dementia.  It runs in the family.  I can type ok and it's the only way I can express myself, but can't function in "real" life.  Can't talk anymore or communicate with others, but in a very limited manner.  I have all the symptoms ppl. with dementia have.  I can't ignore that.   

Stumbled upon this relevant article. 

 

The last Alzheimer’s drug approved was in December 2014, and it was a combination of two existing drugs. Before that, a new medicine for Alzheimer’s hadn’t entered the market since 2003. Of the six drugs ever approved to treat Alzheimer’s, none slow its progression.

 

But that hasn’t stopped drug makers from trying. For the better part of three decades, scientists’ efforts have been focused on beta amyloid — those buildups Dr. Alzheimer saw in his patient’s brain.

 

The theory that beta amyloid is a key part of what causes Alzheimer’s is known as “the amyloid hypothesis.” It says that targeting amyloid should improve the memory loss and other cognitive changes seen in Alzheimer’s.

 

The industry as a whole has so far struck out. Out of 244 drugs tested between 2002 and 2012, only one successfully got to market.

 

And this ...

 

However, not everyone in the field agrees that beta amyloid is even the right place to focus.

 

“Amyloid’s in the brain, we know that — but what role it has in the etiology of Alzheimer’s is unproven,” says Jeff Jonas, CEO of Sage Therapeutics, a biotech company in Boston. He’s in a camp along with many others in the field who think beta amyloid may be a dead end.

 

“The long string of clinical failures for this approach does not augur well for this approach to be a breakthrough therapeutic intervention for Alzheimer’s disease.”

 

https://www.statnews.com/2016/01/28/podcast-alzheimers-amyloid-science/?trendmd-shared=0

 

 

 

And another one ...

 

Top Alzheimer’s approach makes (mice) brains worse

The Takeaway: There is growing evidence, from both clinical trials and mouse experiments, that targeting β-amyloid doesn’t stop, let alone reverse, the neuronal apocalypse of Alzheimer’s. If so, the world has spent 25 years and countless billions of dollars pursuing Alzheimer’s drugs that won’t work.

 

https://www.statnews.com/2015/11/09/top-alzheimers-approach-makes-mice-brains-worse/?trendmd-shared=0

this terrifies the daylights out of me            reindeer

Which part, Reindeer?

well the big pharma involvement  for one thing, but please forgive my jumping the gun but these days I am afraid of everything. :'(                                                Reindeer

Totally understandable! Some things may be best avoided for now. The main thing you have to worry about when you're getting better is just.....getting better! If you find that looking at these studies and articles isn't helping you, then just leave them. For me, information has always been helpful because I want to understand things. It helps me. But that doesn't work for everyone -- especially if the answers aren't so clear right now.

 

Anyway, listen to your gut. And take care of your soul. If you're off the benzodiazepines -- or in the process of getting off them -- then you're going in the right direction. That's one thing we can all be sure of!