CHRONIC USE OF BENZODIAZEPINES AND COGNITIVE DEFICIT COMPLAINTS - A RISK FACTOR STUDY

Benzodiazepines produce an anterograde amnesia after acute administrat ion but whether their chronic use is hazardous to memory processes rem ains unclear. The present study analyses the risk of increasing cognit ive complaints with chronic benzodiazepine use. Subjects seeking medic al assistance at the General Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic of Ho spital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, were interviewed before seeing phy sicians. They were asked about use of benzodiazepines, history of neur ological and psychiatric diseases, use of alcohol, and deficits in rem embering and learning as well as age, sex and level of education. Age (over 51 years), low level of education, a history of neurological and psychiatric diseases and use of benzodiazepines showed significant as sociations with cognitive complaints. After a conditional logistic reg ression analysis, benzodiazepine use lost its association with memory complaints. These data support the hypothesis that the chronic use of benzodiazepines does not carry a risk for cognitive deficits complaint s.