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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

#191

Post by copperx »

aaaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #42
randomopining wrote: post #36

Was just in Mexico and took them 3-4 days in a row (0.5mg - 2mg) to sleep after drinking or the next morning. Slept amazing those few nights. Felt terrible 2 days after the last one, and even now close to a week later I don’t even feel that good. Pretty sure they are terrible for you.

Benzo after drinking? Jesus...

I've heard of doctors taking benzos after drinking. It's a potentially lethal combination, as you can stop breathing in your sleep. However, if you wait until the alcohol has metabolized in your system and becomes a stimulant (when your BAC is about 0.05, or about 4 hrs after moderate drinking), a short-acting benzo in a low dosage can counteract the stimulant effect of alcohol and let you sleep. I have done it before, and works very well, but that's because I have a breathalizer, very low dosage Xanax, and I am responsible with my health. I would never recommend this to anyone, as a wrong calculation can result in death; that's how many hollywood and rock stars have died.

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

#192

Post by outoftheabyss »

yodsanklai wrote: post #120
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…

> I tell everyone to never take benzos for any reasons You can't generalise your experience. Everybody is different and that's the doctor's job to assess whether the benefits outweigh the cost, considering the patient and their problems. Personally, I've been taking benzos very occasionally for 20 years (never more than a few days at a time) and they helped me overcome difficult times. Never had the slightest addicti…

Agreed, I have pretty bad social anxiety with hypervigilance. Taking on average 3 5mg (occasionally a 10mg dose) tablets a week when needed for presentations or meetings with more weight allows me to keep my job.

Even such a small dose I feel restores a sense of normality that I haven't experienced in over 10 years without them, I'm able to rationalise what I want to say, conversation flows, I feel in control. With all that said, I've been doing this for a while and have never come close to addiction and no noticeable side effects. I continue to work on the underlying causes but without them I would be much worse off.

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

#193

Post by matheusmoreira »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #187
matheusmoreira wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Asthma is treated with beta agonists. Beta blockers will block the effect of the asthma medication.

Yup. Newer, more specific beta-blockers are supposed to be safer, but I’m not really interested testing that. :)

Yeah. Asthma is treated with beta-2 agonists. Newer beta blockers such as metoprolol are beta-1 selective and so have "almost no effect" on beta-2 receptors. Older beta blockers like propranolol are not selective at all.

Not interested in taking unnecessary risks either since there are better and safer drugs for general anxiety disorder.

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

#194

Post by ta988 »

mikepurvis wrote: post #177
yodsanklai wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I tell everyone to never take benzos for any reasons You can't generalise your experience. Everybody is different and that's the doctor's job to assess whether the benefits outweigh the cost, considering the patient and their problems. Personally, I've been taking benzos very occasionally for 20 years (never more than a few days at a time) and they helped me overcome difficult times. Never had the slightest addicti…

This whole discussion is making me feel better than ever for choosing cannabis edibles (legal in Canada) to address stress-induced insomnia and other sleep issues for which the root cause was not something I was in a position to immediately address. I take it a few times a week as needed, small doses (2-5mg) and I feel that I am in control of it and could go off any time.

The thing with most addictions is that as long as you are taking a substance and don't try to stop you feel that you are in control. As long as you have not tried to stop you will never know

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

#196

Post by feanaro »

77pt77 wrote: post #131
entropie wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I didn't know.

And again, you get to that state in as little as a week. Alcohol takes much longer.

There does seem to be some genetic variability at play here. I've known people who were able to quit a benzo cold turkey after taking it for significantly longer than a week.

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

#197

Post by pkaye »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #170
pirate787 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My family was addicted to benzos by a quack doctor who hands them out like candy. He has many seniors on it long term for "anxiety" and though seniors are at particular risk and are not supposed to use more than 6 months.

I got to see this side of American medicine while in high school. My great aunt unofficially overdosed on a cocktail of drugs prescribed by a group of loosely coordinating doctors. When she passed, her cocktail included 12 prescriptions. One of her doctors had prescribed her medication to lower her blood pressure while another had her on medication to raise it.

Did she go to different pharmacies? I'd think within a pharmacy system the system would flag drugs that contradict each other.

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

#198

Post by donthellbanme »

pirate787 wrote: post #155
yodsanklai wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I tell everyone to never take benzos for any reasons You can't generalise your experience. Everybody is different and that's the doctor's job to assess whether the benefits outweigh the cost, considering the patient and their problems. Personally, I've been taking benzos very occasionally for 20 years (never more than a few days at a time) and they helped me overcome difficult times. Never had the slightest addicti…

My family was addicted to benzos by a quack doctor who hands them out like candy. He has many seniors on it long term for "anxiety" and though seniors are at particular risk and are not supposed to use more than 6 months.

No post body was provided.

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

#199

Post by matheusmoreira »

SemanticStrengh wrote: post #182
matheusmoreira wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Widely used for anxiety in my country as well but not an optimal choice due to the cardiovascular effects. As you noted, it can cause fatigue.

there exists beta blockers that mostly do not cross the blood brain barrier, and therefore have less effect on fatigue

The fatigue is likely due to negative inotropism. Those newer beta blockers that don't cross the blood brain barrier can also cause the same symptoms in therapeutic doses.

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

#200

Post by AirStreamer27 »

This article makes me genuinely concerned for my own health and future. I was originally placed on clonazepam at 0.5mg/day back when I was a Freshman in High School and have definitely felt reduced levels of cognition whilst on it. I’ve only recently stopped taking it, around 10 years later.
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