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Re: Benzodiazepines - Destruction of brain

Posted by yxibow on May 20, 2005, at 15:47:42

In reply to Benzodiazepines - Destruction of brain, posted by sdb on May 20, 2005, at 4:32:02

> Many psychiatrists say:
>
> benzodiazepines will destroy your brain (Apart from not fully understood pharmacology). How would you as experienced longterm users of benzodiazepines rate this statement?

The benzo.org.uk crowd leans on the border of quackery as far as I'm concerned. There are people on Librium, the first benzodiazepine, who have been on it since its existence, which would be 45 years. They are immensely more safe for outpatient use than their 19th and early 20th century predecessors, barbiturates. Withdrawing a patient from one when they have been on them for years and have had no problem is in my opinion, bad medicine.

Now I'm not saying they are without problems.. in some they can and do indeed cause memory loss, confusion, increased difficulty operating machinery, etc. But these are conditions that exist during therapy -- I don't think one will find competent psychiatrists who will tell you that they eat your brain or any other such fantasies.

In fact, they are probably the safest psychiatric medicines on the market with a proven 45 * (infinite) patient-year record and the side effects are few compared to other medications.

Again, judicious use is always prudent; overdosing the prescriptions on them can cause respiratory depression but this has a wide field of range compared to barbiturates.

Hope that helps.
my 2c.

 

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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050516/msgs/500426.html