Benzodiazepines linked to Alzheimer's?

[slimvictor]

Paris - Long-term use of a drug commonly prescribed for anxiety and sleeplessness is linked to a greater risk of Alzheimer's, a study said.

Whether chronic use of benzodiazepines actually causes the brain disease is unknown, but the link is so glaring that the question should be probed, its authors said.

Dementia affects about 36 million people worldwide, a tally that is expected to double every 20 years as life expectancy lengthens and the “baby boom” demographic bulge reaches late age.

Researchers in France and Canada, using a health insurance database in Quebec, identified 1 796 people with Alzheimer's whose health had been monitored for at least six years before the disease was diagnosed.

They compared each individual against three times as many healthy counterparts, matched for age and gender, to see if anything unusual emerged.

They found that patients who had extensively used benzodiazepines for at least three months in the past, were up to 51 percent more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The risk rose the longer the patient had used the drug.

The investigators admitted the picture was foggy.

Benzodiazepines are used to treat sleeplessness and anxiety - symptoms that are also common among people just before an Alzheimer's diagnosis.

In other words, rather than causing Alzheimer's, the drugs were being used to ease its early symptoms - which could explain the statistical association, they said.

cont at
http://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/benzodiazepines-linked-to-alzheimer-s-1.1748771

 

[Jabberwocky]

nice find! side effects can often be counter intuitive, certainly rarely all self evident. whether there is a casual relationship, this is just another reason to think about what I'm doing with diazepam in hand.

 

[neversickanymore]

I believe long term use of many medications including benzos, ssris, methadone will be linked with conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel, and a broad range of autoimmune conditions. The quicker they study this the better.

 

[Jabberwocky]

And even more so when you start out with any of said conditions before starting the medication! There is some really good info on this from a big UK benzo hr org... If only I could find the site right now.

Don't forget the OTC meds too, or Gynecomastia!

 

[neversickanymore]

Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and myofascial pain syndrome
Buskila, Dan MD

Abstract
Fibromyalgia and widespread pain were common in Gulf War veterans with unexplained illness referred to a rheumatology clinic. Increased tenderness was demonstrated in the postmenstrual phase of the cycle compared with the intermenstrual phase in normally cycling women but not in users of oral contraceptives. Patients with fibromyalgia had high levels of symptoms that have been used to define silicone implant-associated syndrome. Tender points were found to be a common transient finding associated with acute infectious mononucleosis, but fibromyalgia was an unusual long-term outcome. The common association of fibromyalgia with other rheumatic and systemic illnesses was further explored. A preliminary study revealed a possible linkage of fibromyalgia to the HLA region. Patients with fibromyalgia were found to have an impaired ability to activate the hypothalamic pituitary portion of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis as well as the sympathoadrenal system, leading to reduced corticotropin and epinephrine response to hypoglycemia. Much interest has been expressed in the literature on the possible role of autonomic dysfunction in the development or exacerbation of fatigue and other symptoms in chronic fatigue syndrome. Mycoplasma genus and mycoplasma fermentans were detected by polymerase chain reaction in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. It was reported that myofascial temporomandibular disorder does not run in families. No major therapeutic trials in fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, or myofascial pain syndrome were reported over the past year. The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy and behavior therapy for chronic pain in adults was emphasized. A favorable outcome of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome in children and adolescents was reported.

Depression has a Strong Relationship to Alterations in the Immune, Endocrine and Neural System

Abstract:
Epidemiological findings indicate a connection between depressive symptoms and changes in status of the immune system in depressed patients. This raises the possibility of causative connections. Theories on mechanisms for interactions between immune and affective systems - directly and via endocrine system - are evolving. Such hypothesized causative connections are supported by several findings. First, in depressed patients changes in the status of the immune system in vivo and ex vivo are seen. Also, depressive symptoms are seen in patients with altered immune status (physiologically, pathologically or chemically induced). Knowledge in this field may have implications regarding psychiatric follow up of physically ill people suffering from diseases caused by an altered immune system (long lasting infections, autoimmune diseases, hypersensitivity disorders) as well as disorders for which treatment and prognoses depends on the immune system (infections, cancer). Similarly, medical treatment of depressed patients may be adjusted by more specific knowledge about the interaction between neuroimmunology and depression. Important findings and the present knowledge and theories are reviewed.

Antipsychotic Drugs Can Cause Chronic Fatigue; CBCD Reviews the Medical Literature

^ this last one is for the study and not for the advertising

[Published: August 29, 2014]

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0106533

This is a big one for me, as DMT has been one of the most effective treatments I have found for my rheumatoid arthritis.

"Here we demonstrate for the first time the immunomodulatory potential of NN-DMT and 5-MeO-DMT on human moDC functions via sigmar-1 that could be harnessed for the pharmacological treatment of autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammatory conditions of the CNS or peripheral tissues. Our findings also point out a new biological role for dimethyltryptamines, which may act as systemic endogenous regulators of inflammation and immune homeostasis through the sigma-1 receptor."

...

Regulation of macrophage immune responses by antipsychotic drugs.

Antipsychotic drugs (APDs) have been used to ease clinical psychotic symptoms. APDs have also been recently discovered to induce immune regulation. Our previous studies found that atypical APDs risperidone and clozapine could inhibit INF-γ production of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and could inhibit Th1 differentiation. This study further investigates APD effects on monocyte-derived macrophages, which are the major antigen-presenting cells in PBMC. Our data suggest that adhesion, phagocytosis and reactive oxygen species production of monocytic cell lines would be inhibited by haloperidol, risperidone or clozapine. Also, that APDs inhibited the production of LPS-stimulated macrophages IL-6 and IL-8 suggests that risperidone and clozapine may inhibit inflammation. We further discovered that risperidone and clozapine could inhibit IL-12 production and increase IL-10 production of LPS-stimulated macrophages. These results indicated that risperidone and clozapine could inhibit Th1 differentiation not only by increasing INF-γ production of PBMC but by inhibiting the release of Th1-inducing cytokines and increasing Th2-inducing cytokines of LPS-stimulated macrophages to modulate and regulate immune responses.

...

 

[Jabberwocky]

Strong correlation/connection between long term benzo use and certain cancers as well if memory serves.

GOD the side effects of antipsychotics, I'm thinking the most common atypical ones that are so popular these days, are so fucking many! And way too often very very nasty, too often fatal. Like, how Olanzapine (Zyprexa), like most other drugs of it's class, can cause diabetes. Even short term, these drugs can FUUUUUck with your blood sugar. Ugh... What pisses me off the most if how rare it is for the pharmacist/chemist or especially the prescriber to actually inform (not warn necessarily unless they have a predisposition, but at least warn) the prescribee of this serious side effect, let alone others.

Now, I will say that all of these meds are necessarily, useful and extraordinarily beneficial for some of the people who take them. But it really can't be that these make up even a majority of those prescribed. Not to even mention how many of those who actually need medication for mental health struggles do not get access to them, let alone docs or other significant treatment...

Disgusting, but, alas, such is a culture that prioritizes profits and consumption (-might I add, above all these). Thanks for the quotes NSA

 

[Crankinit]

We'll just have to start treating anxiety with opiates then

 

[Jabberwocky]

Derrrr

and, for those who dig it, amphetamine! Ah, the good old days... Although unlike opioids amps might actually cause some damage, or at least paranoia and psychosis among those who dig it dig it :D