Anxiety and Sleep Medications May Increase ALS Risk Up to 34 Percent

A new study’s findings point to a need for careful consideration when prescribing psychiatric medications.

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People taking common anxiety medications and sleep aids may be significantly more likely to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a major new Swedish study, which also found that some psychiatric drugs increased the risk by more than one-third.

While the findings don’t prove that these widely prescribed medications directly cause ALS, an incurable muscle-wasting condition that gradually erodes patients’ ability to move, talk, or eat, they raise questions about long-term monitoring for the millions of people who rely on psychiatric drugs worldwide, according to the authors.

Key Findings

The research, published in JAMA Network Open, analyzed nationwide health data and found that patients prescribed anxiety medications faced a 34 percent increased risk of developing motor neuron disease, while antidepressants raised risk by 26 percent and sedatives by 21 percent.

In people without a family history of ALS, the chance of developing the disease is lower than 1 percent. Even after accounting for medication use, an individual’s risk remains below 2 percent.

Swedish researchers analyzed data from 1,057 people diagnosed with ALS between 2015 and 2023, with an average age of 67. The study required patients to have received at least two prescriptions of psychiatric medications more than a year before their ALS diagnosis to be classified as “exposed.”

Researchers followed patients for an average of 1.33 years after diagnosis and compared them with matched healthy controls, accounting for factors including age, sex, and body mass index.

The increased risk was most pronounced among people under age 65, and the association persisted even when medications were taken more than five years before ALS diagnosis.

ALS patients who had previously used psychiatric medications experienced faster disease progression and decline in motor abilities as well as shorter survival times.

“Prescribed use of common psychiatric medications was associated with a higher subsequent risk of ALS and a poor survival after ALS diagnosis,” the authors wrote, emphasizing that the findings suggest a potential link between psychiatric medications and the risk and progression of ALS.

Psychiatric Disease Linked to ALS

“Once ALS starts, we don’t have a way to stop or reverse it,” Dr. Kimberly Idoko, neurologist and medical director at Everwell Neuro, who was not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times. The disease claimed the life of physicist Stephen Hawking after he lived with it for decades, although the average survival time after an ALS diagnosis is typically two to five years.

The study authors noted that depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances can have detrimental effects on brain cells that may result in structural brain changes that coincide with ALS development.

They emphasized that the findings point to a need for careful consideration when prescribing psychiatric medications and suggest that psychiatric health may influence ALS development and outcomes.

There’s still much we don’t fully understand about ALS, “but what’s clear is that psychiatric symptoms can sometimes precede motor symptoms by years,” Daniel Glazer, a clinical psychologist in private practice who formerly worked for the UK’s National Health Service, and not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times.

This research may shift how we think about long-term monitoring, “not in a reactive way, but by paying closer attention to patterns that seem atypical for a patient’s history,” Glazer said.

Previous research suggests that neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, may manifest before the onset of motor symptoms.

Another theory involves biological pathways.

“ALS involves oxidative stress and immune dysfunction,” Idoko said. It’s possible that some psychiatric drugs affect those same pathways, or that psychiatric illness may itself be a precursor symptom of ALS, she noted.

Idoko said that while the study “certainly” deserves attention, particularly for its finding of faster progression among psychiatric medication-exposed patients, it’s still speculative and preliminary. Researchers hope that these insights will help improve understanding of ALS and inform future early detection and treatment strategies.