New Rule: Docs Who Prescribe Benzos Long-Term Must Help w/Long-term Withdrawal
- by: Susan V
- recipient: U.S. Congress and American Medical Association
Benzodiazepines can make people go "crazy," but benzo withdrawal is even worse. So why do doctors who prescribe these drugs long-term know so little about getting people off them?
Stevie Nicks' story about how her former psychiatrist hooked her on valium and ruined her chance of having a family is just the iceberg tip of horror stories being told by withdrawal victims in online chats.
Benzodiazepines, a class of drugs that can be helpful when used short term, include Valium, Ativan and Xanax, prescribed often for insomnia and anxiety, and the very fast-acting Halcion a lot of dentists are using off-label for sedation. More commonly known as benzos, these drugs act on GABA receptors a lot like alcohol does, but they are even more addictive than alcohol and harder to withdraw from than heroin.
Even people who take benzos only as prescribed find themselves as chemically dependent as abusers, and if they decide to go off the drugs, they have a terrible time finding a doctor to help them taper off properly. But going off cold turkey can be deadly, and is never advised!
What’s worse is that Medicare and Medicaid pay the costs of getting a lot of people hooked, but rarely pay for the proper care needed for what can be months of tormenting withdrawal - and even worse, misdiagnosis and mistreatment.
Tell the American Medical Association that doctors who prescribe benzos long-term must help patients withdraw slowly and safely, and tell Congress that Medicare and medicaid must pay for it!
We, the undersigned, say doctors who prescribe these very addictive drugs, need to have a clear understanding of how to help patients withdraw from them.
Doctors should also make certain that patients are properly informed about how highly addictive benzodiazepines are and how difficult withdrawal can be, especially if not done safely.
Because of the lack of education among those who very readily prescribe benzos, about the effects - often very long term - of withdrawal, patients are often misdiagnosed as mentally ill when they try to taper off or go off cold turkey and end up being drugged even more and harmfully misdiagnosed and mislabeled.
Long considered the standard for proper benzo withdrawal, the Ashton Manual should be studied by all doctors who choose to prescribe benzos to their patients for long-term use, and Medicare and Medicaid, who make it so easy for low-income patients to become addicted to these drugs, should be forced, by Congress to pay the high costs of proper withdrawal treatments.
Doctors and patients can also find help online from organizations like Recovery Road and Point of Return, but , as the situation is now, patients, who are already struggling with the effects of these addictive drugs or withdrawal are put in the position of having to get this information to their doctors or find one of the handful available to work with them.
Currently, safe, compassionate benzo withdrawal programs, for the most part, are available only to the wealthy or those with very special insurance packages. The problem of benzo addiction and withdrawal is too widespread for there not to be many programs available to help people of all income levels withdraw in a safe and caring environment.
Doctors in the US are far less educated on this issue than those in the UK, but even there, where, according to the Boston Globe. “benzodiazepines have been discussed in Parliament, and the British Medical Association is reviewing use and prescribing habits,…there has been little movement toward reducing use or increasing warnings.”
And the “United States have been even slower to address concerns.” adds the Globe.
It’s been years since a International Drug Therapy Newsletter noted that “To reduce the incidence of imprudent and dangerous reduction or discontinuation of benzodiazepine dosage, all prescribers of long-term benzodiazepine therapy must acknowledge that this inevitably results not in benzodiazepine abuse, but in physical dependence. The latter has been defined by Lader as "the development of an altered physiological state which requires continued administration of a drug to prevent the appearance of a characteristic illness, the abstinence syndrome." And still, over 25 years later, this these facts are not adequately addressed by the AMA or Congress, which spends a lot of money on the “War on Drugs” and not enough on educating physicians about the damage done by prescription medications.
We request that the American Medical Association and Congress take action now to ensure that doctors are better trained on benzo withdrawal and that government healthcare programs pay for proper, and well-informed withdrawal programs.
Thanks for your time.
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