05 Jan 2014, 11:11 am
Hi,
I didn't find any forum post about that topic (only some off-hand references in some previous posts) and I think it is a relevant issue.
By browsing those forums and other sources, I have come to the conclusion that numerous persons with ASDs occasionally or continually use benzodiazepines (alprazolam (xanax), diazepam (valium), bromazepam (lexotan), etc.) for anxiety issues. The point of this post is not to say that you should not do so or that "meds are bad", but to increase awareness about a subject of concern that can be relevant for many of you.
There is a growing corpus of scientific evidence showing that there is a correlation between regular consumption of benzodiazepine during life and dementia in old age. The trend was first suspected in some studies in the early 2000s. It was initially a few isolated studies, and they led to some inaccurate, alarmist and grossly excessive articles on the Internet and in popular science magazines. But beyond that, the research went on, and the more recent studies seem to confirm the findings.
I had collected a nice bibliography on the subject, but I lost it during a hard disk crash a few months ago 
All I can find now is :
- Lagnaoui et al., 2002 : Benzodiazepine use and risk of dementia: A nested case–control study
- Verdoux et al., 2004: Is benzodiazepine use a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia? A literature review of epidemiological studies
- Bierman et al., 2007: The effect of chronic benzodiazepine use on cognitive functioning in older persons: good, bad or indifferent?
- Wu et al., 2009: The association between dementia and long-term use of benzodiazepine in the elderly: nested case-control study using claims data.
- Gallacher et al., 2011: Benzodiazepine use and risk of dementia: evidence from the Caerphilly Prospective Study (CaPS)
- Billioti de Gage et al., 2012: Benzodiazepine use and risk of dementia: prospective population based study
(You won't have access to the full text of the article - unless you are in an academic institution with access to medical journals - but the abstract is usually enough to understand each paper's topic and conclusions.)
There are also a good number of articles which are not on dementia strictly speaking but link benzos to other cognitive problems in old age, such as anterograde amnesia (loss of the ability to create new memories). All those studies conclude, with various degrees of certitude, that a link between previous benzos consumption and occurence of dementia does exist. The only exception is the 2004 meta-analysis, which concludes that nothing can be said for sure and further research is needed (but that was in 2004 and further research has indeed been done since that time).
More precisely:
- The correlation was only significant for regular users, not occasional users. I have no idea where the limit between regular and occasional use should be put (and anyway this is an abitrary distinction on a continuum) but I think taking medication daily is "regular use" whereas using them a few times a month or less to overcome anxiety attacks is "occasional use".
- The correlation is with previous use, not current use. So giving xanax to your 80 years old grandma who didn't use it before probably won't make her have dementia.
Again, I'm not saying that benzos are evil and nobody should use them. I am aware that some (NT or AS) people have extremely disabling anxiety issues and that that kind of medication is the only thing allowing them to have a life at all. If the choice for me was between taking a regular anxiolytic treatment and maybe having dementia later or not taking it and being certain to have an utterly miserable life right now and for the forseeable future I woud definitely go with the meds. Nevertheless, I think benzos are overprescribed (especially in some countries) and too many doctors and patients use them in an automatic way without judging the consequences. If you, like me fall into the categories of people who benefit from using benzodiazepine occasionally but can, with some effort, do without them for a time, I think the above information can be a good reason to keep your use as low as possible (without making your life more miserable than needed) and consider other alternatives on a daily basis.
Again I am just sharing what I deem is valuable information and will let anyone draw his own conclusions.
