The risks of giving older people sleeping pills and other sedatives outweigh the benefits, researchers have said. 

    Many people over the age of 60 suffer from insomnia, which has severe effects on quality of life. 

    But an analysis of research published in the British Medical Journal suggests that giving them sleeping pills may actually do more harm than good. 

    Between 5 per cent and 33 per cent of older people in the UK and North America are prescribed sleeping pills such as benzodiazepine. 

    Researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada, looked at 24 studies carried out between 1966 and 2003 involving 2,417 people, considering the effects of sedatives and sleeping pills. 

    They concluded that the adverse effects among older people taking sedatives, including dizziness, loss of balance, falls and disorientation - were significant enough to make them think non-drug treatments could be a better way of tackling insomnia. 

     The team found that effects such as dizziness or loss of balance - psychomotor-type side-effects - were reported in 13 of the studies it looked at. 

    The researchers said seven of the 59 psychomotor effects that were reported in these studies were serious - six falls and one car crash. 

    They did say there were many potential benefits for people taking sedatives, such as more uninterrupted sleep, ease of getting to sleep and the amount of time spent sleeping. 

    But they concluded there were indications that older patients are more than twice as likely to experience an adverse event taking drugs to help them sleep as they are to gain a better quality of sleep. 

    "Although the improvements in sleep variables obtained from prescription sedative hypnotics are statistically significant, the effect size is small, and the clinical benefits may be modest at best," the researchers said. 

    "The added risk of an adverse event may not justify these benefits, particularly in a high risk elderly population." 

    Non-drug therapies, such as cognitive behaviour therapy, have been found to be useful in helping older people deal with insomnia, they said. 

    "Because fewer risks are associated with behavioural therapies, they may be a viable treatment alternative in a healthy elderly population with no cognitive impairment," the researchers added. 

   很多60歲以上的老年人都受到了失眠癥的困擾，這嚴重影響到了他們的生活質量。因此，這些老人選擇服用安眠藥片來幫助他們獲得更好的睡眠。但是，日前發表在《英國醫學雜志》上的一份分析文章卻指出，讓這些老人服用安眠藥物實際上是弊大于利。 

    據《每日郵報》11月11日報道，加拿大多倫多毒癮及精神健康中心的工作人員對1966年至2003年間實施的24項相關研究進行了分析，研究共涉及2417人，旨在判斷鎮靜劑及安眠藥片的療效。 

    分析結果顯示，老年人服用鎮靜劑的不良后果包括頭昏眼花、身體失去平衡、跌倒及喪失知覺等。而這足以讓他們考慮采取一種更好的不用吃藥的方法來對抗失眠。研究小組發現，24項研究中的13項都提到了服藥后出現諸如頭昏眼花、喪失知覺等副作用。 

    研究人員稱，他們并不否認人們服用鎮靜劑會有很多潛在的好處，如睡眠不易被打擾、容易入睡以及睡眠時間充分等。但他們同時指出，老年人卻并不適宜服用此類藥物，他們更容易受到藥物副作用的影響。相比較起來，其它一些不用服藥的方法，如認知行為療法則更適合于老年人用來對抗失眠癥。