Posted by marshall26 on July 3, 2007, at 20:24:17
In reply to Re: The Benzos, posted by linkadge on July 3, 2007, at 12:57:24
> In many cases, a few patients ruin it for everbody. I would argue that opiates are more widely abused, yet no warning is routinly given to say a dental patient given codiene after surgery.
I would agree that opiate derivatives are more likely to be _abused_ than benzos. However benzo withdrawal is _much_ more serious than opiate withdrawal. It can be life threatening, cause seizures, psychological shock, etc. Not to mention it's absolute torture.
> But on the same line, no doctor could ever (in a single session) describe the kind of withdrawl a SSRI patient might go through. It may also be counterproductive. You want to alert the patient to the possability, but not scare them from considering treatment.But most doctors and psychiatrists don't even mention withdrawal, or deny that it exists when questioned. Yet they give SSRIs out to the masses for relatively mild depression or anxiety where even the effacacy is questionable.
In my case antidepressants were helpful when I was severely depressed (i.e. not able to get out of bed most days). In my case there was clearly something very wrong. I had no interest in anything and found all of life’s endeavors to be utterly meaningless drudgery. This was back in the early 90s. Yet today SSRIs are given out to anybody for almost any ailment. Often SSRI treatment may not be in the person’s best interest, but many risks are either downplayed or not even mentioned.
>
> >I’m just as critical of SSRIs being handed out >like candy. Both classes can lead to such severe >withdrawal reactions that people have to take >disability leave or lose their job.
>
> True. I personally found benzo withdrawl much less painfull than SSRI withdrawl. SSRI's for example (seemingly permanantly) deleted my sex drive. I would not say that I am currently suffering any consequences of previous benzodiazapine use.
>That’s probably because only 5% of people are likely to have severe reactions discontinuing a benzo. Likewise a minority of people have severe problems discontinuing SSRIs. Since the likelihood of having trouble with either one is independent of the other, most people won’t experience both problems. However when you consider the fact that millions of people are prescribed antidepressants and/or benzos, there’s going to be a lot of people who do have problems. It’s simple statistics.
I just don’t think its right for doctors to assume something isn’t a problem just because it only has a small chance of occurring.
poster:marshall26
thread:766128
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070630/msgs/767460.html