32 - Epidemiology of sleep medication use in the elderly

Summary

The objectives of this chapter are formulated with the four epidemiological research questions such as the type of people most likely to use medication to enhance sleep, and whether it makes a difference if people live in terms of urban/rural or region of the country. The chapter provides new information on the epidemiology of sleep medication use. One new development in this chapter is the comparison of sleep medicine taken for the express reason of helping with sleep with medication which often has the indication of enhancing sleep while it is not known why it was actually taken. Another development is the comparison of the use of over-the-counter (OTC) sleep medication with prescription sleep medication. While benzodiazepines (BZD) is an important tool in treating many conditions, everything possible should be done to prevent patients embarking on a path that they or their doctors may later wish they had not followed.