Small comfort: the introduction of minor tranquilizers to the public and the medical profession

The relationship between alcohol problems and use of tranquilizing drugs: longitudinal patterns among American women

A previous community study of older adults (Graham et al., 1996) indicated a relationship between alcohol problems and use of tranquilizing drugs despite no relationship between alcohol consumption and tranquilizer use. The present paper explores this issue further using longitudinal data from a representative sample of American women. The results replicated previous findings of a significant relationship between alcohol problems and tranquilizer use that was unrelated to alcohol consumption. Analyses of longitudinal patterns indicated that alcohol problems in 1981 predicted subsequent use of tranquilizing drugs and that this relationship may be moderated by anxiety, with the relationship being strongest for respondents who reported few or no problems with anxiety. The results indicated no support for the relationship being due to: a pharmacological interaction of alcohol with tranquilizing drugs; use of tranquilizing drugs precipitating alcohol problems; or depression, anxiety, poor health or childhood sexual abuse being common causes of both alcohol problems and tranquilizer use. The link between alcohol problems and use of tranquilizing drugs needs to be investigated further to increase understanding of addictive behaviors.

Analyses of use of tranquilizers and sleeping pills across five surveys of the same population (1985-1991): the relationship with gender, age and use of other substances

The present study used analyses of data from five surveys of the same population over a 6-year period to examine the relationship of use of tranquilizers/sleeping pills with gender, age and use of other psychoactive substances. Part of the study involved identifying methodological issues in using surveys to study tranquilizer/sleeping pill use. Across surveys and within all age groups, females were more likely to use tranquilizers and/or sleeping pills than males, with an average ratio overall of a little higher than three to two (varying across surveys from 1.4 to 2.1; mode of 1.6). Prevalence rates for both females and males were strongly affected by timeframe over which use was measured. Use of tranquilizers/sleeping pills increased with age; however, the relationship with age was different for tranquilizers than for sleeping pills. For tranquilizers, the high correlation between age and use was largely attributable to the low rate of use by those aged 34 and younger. For sleeping pills, on the other hand, the relationship is based more on the high rate of use by those aged 65 and older. In addition, age was a major factor in nonmedical use of tranquilizers/sleeping pills, with nonmedical use decreasing dramatically with age. Use of other types of psychoactive medications was significantly higher among tranquilizer/sleeping pill users than among non-users. The results pertaining to concurrent use of tranquilizers/sleeping pills and alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco, however, showed some trends, but findings were not consistent across all surveys. Further analyses suggested that this lack of consistent findings might be attributable to survey design issues, in particular, the extent that the format of the survey question tended to exclude nonmedical users. The implications of these results for future research on tranquilizer/sleeping pill use are discussed.