People taking more than 132 sleeping pills per year were 35% more likely to get cancer in 2.5 years

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Monday, April 02, 2012 9:30 am Email this article
People taking just more than 132 sleeping pills per year -- the average in this group was 469 pills per year -- were 35% more likely to develop a major cancer over an average follow-up of 2.5 years compared to nonusers according to a recent study by researchers at Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, USA.

Subjects

Subjects: 10,000+ people taking sleeping pills vs 23,000+ not taking sleeping pills

The study followed 10,529 people given prescriptions for sleeping pills and compared them with 23,636 matched controls who had not been given a prescription for sleeping pills.

Follow-up Period

Average follow-up of 2.5 years

The subjects were followed for an average of 2.5 years.

REFERENCE

Kripke D, Langer R, Kline L. Hypnotics’ association with mortality or cancer: A matched cohort study. BMJ Open. 2012, 2(1):e000850.

AUTHOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr Daniel F Kripke
Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center
La Jolla, California, USA
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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Other articles about sleeping pills

• Sleeping pills estimated to cause 320,000 to 507,000 excess deaths per year in US alone
• People taking sleeping pills were 4.6 times more likely to die over 2.5 years
• People taking 1 to 18 sleeping pills per year were 3.6 times more likely to die over 2.5 years
• People taking 18 to 132 sleeping pills per year were 4.4 times more likely to die over 2.5 years
• People taking more than 132 sleeping pills per year were 5.3 times more likely to die over 2.5 years
• Controlling for poor health did NOT explain the excess deaths associated with sleeping pills
• People taking more than 18 to 132 sleeping pills per were 20% more likely to get cancer in 2.5 years
• People taking more than 132 sleeping pills per year were 35% more likely to get cancer in 2.5 years
• Sleeping pills increase risk of depression, suicide, infections, hypertension, CVD, heart failure
• Try L-tryptophan or pumpkin seeds or raw milk instead of sleeping pills

Articles on the same subject can be found here:

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