Cognitive improvement following benzodiazepine discontinuation in elderly nursing home residents
✍ Scribed by Carl Salzman; Janina Fisher; Kenneth Nobel; Randy Glassman; Abbie Wolfson; Margaret Kelley
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1992
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 424 KB
- Volume
- 7
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6230
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
In a controlled study, benzodiazepine treatment was gradually discontinued from a group of elderly nursing home residents. In comparison with similar residents who continued on benzodiazepines, measures of memory and cognitive functioning showed significant improvement following discontinuance. There was no associated increase in anxiety, agitation, or sleeplessness. These data are consistent with previous observations suggesting that benzodiazepines impair cognitive function in the elderly and further indicate that such impairment is reversible upon benzodiazepine discontinuance.
KEY WORDS-Nursing homes, benzodiazepines, cognitive impairment.