Posted by Quintal on February 4, 2007, at 16:46:07
In reply to Re: Ashton Rocks!, posted by bassman on February 4, 2007, at 15:19:28
>As a panic disorder person, for whom long-term benzo usage is an important alternative, she comes across like she is running the equivalent of a anti-smoking site...
She is. Remember she ran a specialist benzodiazepine withdrawal clinic from 1982-1994 and that is where she obtained most of her data and experience. She published 'The Ashton Manual' free on the internet after being forced by law to retire from the NHS at the age of 65, so that her work could continue to help people who would otherwise have little or no support. I think it's awful Heather is so villified for doing that.
>the assumption is that benzos are bad for you (they lead to "addiction, tolerance, etc. all of which have been disputed in the literature)
Oh come on bassman....benzos do lead to addiction - I know they do because I became an addict that started with legal prescriptions; they do lead to tolerance - that's so obvious and well documented it's hardly worth arguing over; they do lead to dependence, as do nearly all psychiatric drugs taken long term.
>and everyone should get off of them;
I posted a quote from Heather herself further up this thread that contradicts your statement.
>and people should, of course, use her method.
I've never seen any evidence of that - quite to the contrary. She's very objective.
>I do agree with her that sometimes people abuse benzos (but seldom PD folks)
I think her stance on this issue might be that the ultimate aim of any treatment should be for the patient to achieve wellness so that they no longer require the treatment, rather than lingering dependence on substances that (to some degree) impair normal, healthy brain function. So even though people initially feel better (and do indeed function better) when taking benzos, the final goal should still be independent wellness. She maintains this view with regard to antidepressants and other commonly prescribed drugs in the treatment of anxiety disorders - it's not just benzos. I think it's a very good point and a refreshing one too coming from a highly qualified member of the medical community.
>The best thing for such people may be to have a structured taper, but there are lots of good ones, not just with Valium
There are withdrawal charts for several benzodiazepines in the Ashton manual, not just Valium, for use if people wish to taper off directly from their drug of choice. Ashton recommends people do so if they have reservations about switching to Valium, or if Valium is poorly tolerated.
>But that is an individual decision, not one that should be made by "the state".
It is still an individual decision in the UK today. Heather Ashton is protecting that very right in her letter to Rosie Winterton.
>I think she has contributed to the benzophobia in the UK that to my mind, causes unnecessary suffering.
All Heather Ashton has done is produce excellent work from which facts have been drawn. Other people seem to have taken it upon themselves to use her work as propaganda for some quasi-evangelical inquisition against benzos. This was mainly lead by the talk show host Esther Rantzen on her TV consumer advice show 'That's Life!' in the 1980s - she more than anybody has done the most to provoke anti-benzo hysteria in the UK. If you read the benzo.org site regularly you'll see how often Ashton gets annoyed with people misquoting her and trying to use her work to further their own ends. Heather has asked one particular anti-benzo organisation to stop using her work without prior permission on her part because she disagrees with their intention of forcing all benzo addicts to withdraw against their will. I'll try to find a link.
>perhaps you can see that I see her mission differently and her reliance on available data outside the UK somewhat inflexible.
No, I don't. Most of her data comes from direct personal experience of working with benzodiazepine addicts in her own clinic - the best type of data in my opinion. I trust her work to be impartial and accurate. It's really quite odd that people use her as some sort of hate figure. She's just speaking the truth and that might sometimes be unpalatable.
Q
poster:Quintal
thread:729587
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070201/msgs/729698.html