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Following Heart Attack, Moderate Benzodiazepine Use May Have Protective Effects
Following Heart Attack, Moderate Benzodiazepine Use May Have Protective Effects
First published in Psychiatry Weekly, Volume 9, Issue 9; June 23, 2014
A large, register-based study from Taiwan, published in Atherosclerosis, examined the effects of anxiolytic treatment on long-term mortality in patients with a previous episode of myocardial infarction. The researchers assessed the incidence of sudden death, cardiovascular mortality, and heart failure hospitalization in one million subjects aged >30 years with at least one heart attack. Benzodiazepine and other medication use was also examined, along with dosages. Adjusted hazard ratios of sudden death were associated with an increased benzodiazepine dosage over a period encompassing nearly 5 years. However, the risk of cardiac mortality and heart failure hospitalization were decreased in patients who received small to moderate dosages of benzodiazepines following heart attack. These apparent protective effects of benzodiazepines began to taper off at dosages exceeding 5 mg/day. www.atherosclerosis-journal.com/article/S0021-9150(14)01168-X/abstract
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