Half Of Sleeping Pills' Benefits May Be Due To Placebo Effect

Half Of Sleeping Pills' Benefits May Be Due To Placebo Effect

Half the reason why sleeping pills work is because of the placebo effect, according to a new review of studies in the British Medical Journal.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School, the University of Connecticut and the University of Lincoln analyzed past data from 13 studies on a type of sleeping pill called Z-drugs (also known as non-benzodiazepine hypnotics, which include the brand names of Lunesta, Ambien and Sonata). The studies included more than 4,300 people.

The researchers found "that Z-drugs did reduce the length of time it took for subjects to fall asleep, both subjectively and as measured in a sleep lab, but around half of the effect of the drug was a placebo response," study researcher Niroshan Siriwardena, a professor at the University of Lincoln, said in a statement.

Researchers said the findings have implications for people who use these sleeping pills and experience negative side effects, like problems with balance, fatigue and memory loss.

Recently, a study in the journal BMJ Open showed a link between hypnotic sleeping pill use and increased death risk. The study showed that people who take 18 or fewer sleeping pills each year have a three-and-a-half-times increased risk of death, compared with people who don't take the pills.

And the effect seems to be even higher with the more pills you take -- CBS News reported that people who take 132 or more sleeping pills a year have a five-times higher risk of death, as well as a 35 percent increased risk of developing cancer.

For more on sleeping pills -- and why we use them in the first place -- watch this HuffPost Live segment with Marc Lamont Hill and Drs. Russell Sanna and Stuart Quan, both of Harvard Medical School:

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com