Certain psychiatric drugs linked with elevated pneumonia risk

A review of published studies indicates that use of benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine related drugs (BZRDs), which are prescribed to treat various psychiatric diseases, may increase the risk of pneumonia.

The International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry analysis included 12 reports related to 10 studies involving more than 120,000 pneumonia cases. After pooling the estimates, the odds for developing pneumonia were 1.25-fold higher in BZRD users compared with individuals who had not taken BZRDs.

There was an increased risk of pneumonia among current and recent users, but not past users.

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