People who take certain prescription sleeping pills even once in a while may be up to five times more susceptible to early death, a U.S. study suggests.
The findings, published in this week's issue of the journal BMJ Open, show the importance of not becoming dependent on sleeping pills to fight insomnia.
In the U.S., an estimated six per cent to 10 per cent of adults used the drugs in 2010.
To look for any associations between use of common hypnotics and increased mortality and cancer risks, the researchers compared death rates among 10,529 people who received prescriptions for sleeping pills and 23,600 others who did not but were similar in terms of age, physical health, income and other factors.
The researchers found that people taking as few as 18 pills a year were 3.6 times more likely to die early than people who take no sleeping pills. Those taking 18 to 132 pills a year were up to five times more likely to die early.
The study was done by Dr. Daniel Kripke of Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Centre in La Jolla, Calif., and colleagues.
They concluded that in 2010, hypnotics such as zolpidem, temazepam and eszopiclone may be associated with 320,000 to 507,000 excess deaths in the U.S.
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