Long-term benzodiazepine therapy does not result in brain abnormalities

Studies on the association between long-term benzodiazepine use and brain a bnormalities have yielded conflicting results. The computed tomographic (CT ) scans of 20 long-term users of benzodiazepine (65% men; mean age a SD [ra nge], 42 +/- 12.1 years [23-59]; mean daily benzodiazepine dose [diazepam e quivalents], 19.5 +/- 16.2 mg [2.5-70]; mean cumulative benzodiazepine expo sure, 55.2 g [1.8-198]) were compared with 36 age-(+/-3 years) and sex-matc hed controls. Controls were prospectively recruited from 96 patients attend ing a neurology clinic and were interviewed to screen for alcohol and subst ance use disorders and other conditions possibly leading to brain atrophy. Three neuroradiologists blindly assessed each CT scan for atrophy and measu red ventricles (V1, V2, V3), sulci, fissures, cisterns, and folia, Reliabil ity among observers ranged from 0.92 to <0.1, in which case deleting one ob server increased all reliabilities to >0.45, No difference in atrophy was f ound between benzodiazepine users and controls. V1 measures were significan tly higher for benzodiazepine users than for controls (mean a SD, 12.1 +/- 1.3 vs. 11.1 +/- 2.0; p = 0.02), but measures of third and fourth largest s ulci were significantly higher in controls than in benzodiazepine users, Ri ght third and fourth largest sulci (mean +/- SD), respectively, were the fo llowing: controls, 0.72 +/- 0.4 and 0.74 +/- 0.7; benzodiazepine users, 0.5 1 +/- 0.3 and 0.46 +/- 0.3 (p < 0.02), Left third and fourth largest sulci, respectively, were the following: controls, 0.77 +/- 0.6 and 0.65 +/- 0.3; benzodiazepine users, 0.53 +/- 0.3 and 0.5 +/- 0.3 (p < 0.02), Long-term b enzodiazepine therapy does not result in brain abnormalities that can be de monstrated on CT scans.