Aurora, Colorado — For decades, countless Americans have taken benzodiazepines Xanax, Valium, Klonopin, etc., which are said to be safe ways to treat anxiety. While these drugs are certainly effective in temporarily relieving anxiety, recent studies have associated benzodiazepines with a number of worrying side effects. Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus report that both benzodiazepine use and withdrawal from these drugs are associated with nervous system damage and adverse life effects.
These findings point to a serious medical challenge facing many Americans that few people talk about. Countless patients have been prescribed these drugs by their doctors and psychiatrists and have used them daily for years, if not decades. Many patients currently try to stop using benzodiazepines and face significant withdrawal symptoms, rebound anxiety that is often worse than the initial stress, and additional side effects such as insomnia and depression.
Benzodiazepine use has also been widely associated with memory problems and, to a lesser extent, full-blown cognitive decline. Perhaps most troubling, many patients lament that they still do not feel completely ‘normal’ after they have stopped using benzodiazepines.
“Despite the fact that benzodiazepines have been widely prescribed for decades, this study provides important new evidence that some patients experience long-term neurological complications. It shows,” says Alexis Ritbo, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado. He is the Medical Director of the School of Medicine and the non-profit Alliance for Benzodiazepine Best Practice. media release. “This should change the way we think about benzodiazepines and how to prescribe them.”
“Patients have reported long-term effects from benzodiazepines for over 60 years. “We still have symptoms every day. Our research and the new term BIND give voice to the patient experience and point to the need for further research,” said one of the paper’s co-authors. Cardiologist Christy Huff, M.D., director of the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition, adds.
The project was a collaboration with Anschutz University, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and several patient-led advocacy groups aimed at educating the public about the harms of benzodiazepines. Many members of the research team have direct experience with benzodiazepines.
Symptoms were generally long lasting, with 76.6% of the positive responses to the symptom question reporting that they lasted from at least several months to over a year. Half of the respondents reported 10 symptoms, including low energy, difficulty concentrating, memory loss, anxiety, insomnia, sensitivity to light and sound, digestive disorders, food and drink-induced symptoms, muscle weakness, and body aches. has lasted for over a year. .
In many cases, these symptoms were completely different and new to the original anxiety symptoms for which the benzodiazepines were first prescribed. In addition, most patients reported long-term adverse life effects in all areas. More specifically, these negative events include severely damaged relationships, unemployment, and increased health care costs. More than half (54.4%) reported having experienced suicidal ideation or attempted suicide.
BIND, or benzodiazepine-induced neurological dysfunction, is theorized to be the result of changes in the brain in response to drugs. According to a general review of existing relevant literature, BIND tends to occur in about 1 in 5 long-term users. At present, the risk factors for BIND are poorly understood, and more research is needed to further define this condition and generate new treatments.
Previous research has described this damage in many terms, but perhaps the best-known terms are: long term withdrawal. As part of this study, the Scientific Review Board unified these names into the following terms: Benzodiazepine-induced neurological dysfunction (BIND) to describe the state more precisely.
Additionally, in an attempt to better characterize BIND, the researchers analyzed another data set originally collected in a previously published survey of current and former benzodiazepine users. The survey asked about symptoms and adverse effects on life that could be attributed to benzodiazepines. The survey, which included 1,207 benzodiazepine users from benzodiazepine advocacy groups and health and wellness sites, is the largest survey of its kind.
Participants included those actively taking benzodiazepines (63.2%), those undergoing weight loss (24.4%), or those who had completely discontinued (11.3%). Nearly all of the study participants (98.6%) had a prescription for benzodiazepines, and 91% took the drug almost exactly as prescribed.
The research will be published in a journal PLoS ONE.
