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Those Sleeping Pills May Be Killing You

Posted by timothy on from the ok-john-stick-to-the-vodka dept.

dstates writes "A recent article in in BMJ Open reports a strong association between the use of prescription sleeping pills and mortality. The study used electronic health records for 2.5 million people covered by the Geisinger Health System to find 12 thousand who had been prescribed sleeping pills and a matched set of controls. Death rates were much higher in the patients taking sleeping pills and the risk increases with age. Kudos to the authors for publishing this in an open access journal."

4 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. When I die ... by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... I want to go quietly, in my sleep. Like my grandfather.
    Not screaming in terror, like his passengers.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  2. Working as advertised by ark1 · · Score: 1, Funny

    These pills are supposed to put you to sleep, waking up again was never promised.

  3. Those Hospitals May Be Killing You by satuon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Urgent bulletin. A new study has found that people having extended stays inside hospitals have a much higher mortality rate than people who don't. Avoid hospitals at all costs.

  4. Re:Did they adjust for crazy? by MartinSchou · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do the same study again only this time instead of looking at what drugs they're on, give them a sleep disorder questionnaire, drowsiness survey, and a sleep study.

    Since they were looking at people who died, I think the ability to get them to answer questions would be much more interesting than what the answers would be.