Posted by Kon on January 7, 2004, at 18:56:58
In reply to Re: Long Term Klonopin Usage, posted by Siraris on January 7, 2004, at 0:15:05
> Elderly men... do you think that's even relevant to this situation? I am not elderly, I'm in my early 20's. When I am elderly, I expect to lose cognitive abilities because my brain is old.
Yes, as you get older your cognitive abilities decrease but the study suggests that your cognitive abilities may decrease to a greater degree if you take such drugs long-term than if you don't. There are even a number of studies that suggest some increase incidence of dementia in long-term benzo users when compared to non-users.> Regarding both tests, what evidence do they have of the cognitive abilities of these patients before the testing.
Does it really matter? If performance on the cognitive/memory tests improves following withdrawl of the drug, doesn't that suggest the drug plays some role in the lower scores seen prior to withdrawl? What other explanation can you offer given that a control group did not show performance improvement?
> In the second test, how do they know that the Benzo's were causing the cognitive ability loss and not the fact that they were anxious and depressed? It says nowhere that they were anxiety and depression free.
But the test scores improved following withdrawl of benzos. If what you are saying is true, withdrawl of benzos and return of anxiety/depression should have resulted in decreased scores/performance. In fact, subjects improved their scores.
>If you show me a test where they found that 50 people had a 120 IQ before taking Benzos, and then started taking them and their IQ dropped to 110, then I'd say Benzos are the issue.Studies do suggest some cognitive/memory deficits following medication with benzos. In fact, benzos are used before operations for this purpose. But it has always been argued that such deficits are short-term simply because one hasn't adapted to the benzo or is due to the initial sedating effect of benzos (which goes away after a couple of weeks). The problem with this argument is that it can't explain the long-term decrement that occurs in long-term benzo users or their improvement in scores following withdrawl of benzo.
>Do you have any other studies that also concur with this finding (that discontinuation of benzos does not result in improvement of cognitive function to pre-treatment levels)? I would very much like to read them.Most show gradual improvement. The longest one I've come across was a follow-up at 3.5 years. After this longer time period, it does show that cognitive function was similar to control group. The studies suggest that the risk increases with longer duration of use and higher doses. Despite these risks, I still take clonazepam as-needed at a dose of < 2.0 mg because I still feel that benzos are safer choice for my anxiety than the alternatives.
poster:Kon
thread:295342
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040105/msgs/297806.html