Association between Development of Dementia and Use of Benzodiazepines: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Our results suggest an association between the use of benzodiazepines and the development of dementia. However, the current evidence lacks the power to infer differences between the effects of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementias, long-acting and short-acting benzodiazepines, and various exposure loads (duration and dose). Future long-term prospective cohort studies are necessary, with adequate adjustments for confounding variables, strategies to minimize reverse causality, reporting of subgroups aimed at greater homogeneity of findings, adequate statistical power to identify high-magnitude effects, and defined daily dose analyses for dose-response gradient.