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Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

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Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#61

Post by Nextgrid »

blagie wrote: post #32
natly wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend working out, it helped me a ton with anxiety. It basically cured it (I don't work out much anymore but a short intense few months of hard workouts seems to have almost removed it from my system years afterwards).

There are sources of anxiety without clear solutions. I have a stalker. There's low-level harassment continuously, but every few months, she does something crazy, and my life is completely disrupted. I have no idea what to do about it. It's nearing a decade....

Can police help?

Alternatively, (non-violent) retaliation? Seems like there's no downside for this person to be harassing you. Creating a downside might make her think twice next time.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#62

Post by jlmorton »

shepardrtc wrote: post #29

I was prescribed benzos because of sleeping issues, but I was also taking phenibut at the same time. After about 3 weeks of using large doses of the benzos every night, I stopped taking them, but a year later I still feel pangs of withdrawal sometimes when I get stressed. It took me another 4 months to get off the phenibut and a month or so after that before my sleep returned to normal. There were months where I mayb…

It's much the same with chronic alcohol usage, and a very similar pathway. Both alcohol and benzodiazepines bind to GABA receptors, and through several difference mechanisms (desensitization, downregulation through gene expression, degradation), these receptors become less sensitive.

GABA receptors are critical to sleep. After prolonged usage of alcohol, or benzos, sleep often becomes impossible without an ever-larger dosage.

These sleeping difficulties sometimes persist for quite a while, and sleep disturbances are one of the primary causes of relapse in alcoholics. People learn that alcohol helps them to fall asleep. Even if the quality of sleep is poor, it's substantially better than no sleep at all, as anyone who has gone through what you did surely knows.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#64

Post by SemanticStrengh »

rhexs wrote: post #57
SemanticStrengh wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

here's 438 studies for you https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Emoxypine&sort=date the marketing name is mexidol. Emoxypine is a wonder drug for health, it is one of the most potent superoxide antioxidant and has an incredible range of body protective effetcs see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoxypine#Mechanism_of_action look at the pictures and admire the amount of saved brain volume https://www.researchgate…

Interesting. What's the quality of Russian medical research versus western? What journals are considered prestigious? (Not trying to troll -- I honestly have no idea and can't judge it accurately).

I have much more respect for russian papers in pharmacology in general than for your average american study. There are many reasons to this: 1) a lot of their research is public. They don't have broken incentives, e.g. they can study the tech that the body use, such as peptides. Big pharma can't leverage endogenous peptides because they're not patentable, a true tragedy that considerably sets back medecine progress. 2) they study outside of the boxe things, they are not afraid to do human trials, they have expertise in gerontology (oxidative stress, bioenergetics, etc) which are often very lacking in american studies.

also, those russian researches are generally validated by non-russian working groups.

as an example, many of the favorites nootropics people experience have been discovered in russia (racetams, bromantane, etc)

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#65

Post by maleldil »

anonymoushn wrote: post #22
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not just talking about benzos, but also anti psychotics, amphetamines, statins, and basically the whole gamut. My brother is a pharmacist, and is constantly shocked by the prescriptions that healthy people bring in to get filled. The medical field has been unjustly given too much prestige.

antipsychotics are horrifying. do therapeutic doses of stimulants cause problems other than heart disease over the long term?

Antipsychotics are terrifying, but I'd rather deal with the physical side-effects than the disorder, and they're pretty effective at treating that.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#66

Post by jimmar »

I took 1 benzodiazepine bill once about 15 years ago and I still remember the effect--instant total relaxation. I remember thinking that it felt too good and that it's something I shouldn't let myself have again. Hearing about its long term effects, I feel somewhat lucky.

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#67

Post by sph »

SemanticStrengh wrote: post #45

The world of medecine is degenerate. Sustainable, non addictive and non neurotoxic anxiolytics exists: the #1 being opipramol the sigmaergic. emoxypine (which btw cure hangover) and guanfacine are worth mentioning. Maybe beta blockers to some extent. NMDA antagonists such as memantine have side effects but are not neurotoxic to my knowledge and there are milder ones such as mg-lthreonate. afobazole is interesting but…

I have a hard time believing that while the current status quo is suboptimal, there's some little known compounds that are, as you say, revolutionary and with little side effects. Pharmacological research is a constantly moving target, there is no scientific nor economic reason that a supposedly "perfect" remedy remains unknown. Sounds too much like thinly veiled conspiracy, or perhaps they're not as perfect as you're suggesting.

That said, it's not my area of competence, so if you know _why_ opipramol and guanfacine are ignored compared to benzos and other anxiolytic, you should probably explain that.

EDIT: re: guanfacine, I know it's a second-line treatment for ADHD, it was previously used to treat hypertension, but this is the first time I hear it might be applicable as an anxiolytic. It does certainly have side effects, though not as bad as being neurodegenerative like benzodiazepines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanfacine

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#68

Post by whimsicalism »

SemanticStrengh wrote: post #59
RGamma wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctors prescribe benzos for sleep issues and tell you they are safe? Do you live in the US?

is that a question? Benzos are not safe despite what many doctor believe. I'm in EU.

they're saying they wouldn't be so easily prescribed in the US

Re: Long-term benzodiazepine use causes synapse loss and cognitive deficits in mice

#69

Post by leach »

glerk wrote: post #19

Benzos are pretty terrible drugs in general. The physical addiction potential and withdrawal people are going through are enough to dissuade me from touching them. For folks dealing with anxiety, I recommend trying propranolol. It is not as powerful, but sometimes it is enough to achieve the desired effect and the side effects are way less severe.

I take a benzo ICE as needed, but was on them for a while and never really noticed degenerative affects though I’m young though. Should I be worried?
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