Benzodiazepines addition to antidepressants increases death risk in depression: Study
Written By : Dr. Nandita Mohan
Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli
Published On 2020-12-22 14:45 GMT | Update On 2020-12-23 10:05 GMT
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Researchers have found in a new research that addition of benzodiazepines to antidepressants monotherapy to treat depression was associated with a moderately increased risk of all-cause mortality when compared to antidepressants monotherapy.
The study has been published in BMC Medicine.
With antidepressants (ADs) having minimal therapeutic effects during the initial weeks of treatment, benzodiazepines (BZDs) are concomitantly used to alleviate depressive symptoms of insomnia or anxiety. However, with mortality risks associated with this concomitant use yet to be examined, it remains unclear as to whether this concomitant therapy offers any benefits in treating depression.
Therefore, Han Eol Jeong and associates from the School of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea conducted a population-based cohort study using South Korea's nationwide healthcare database. Of 2.6 million patients with depression, the authors identified 612,729 patients with incident depression and newly prescribed ADs or BZDs, by excluding those with a record of diagnosis or prescription within the 2 years prior to their incident diagnosis.
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