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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

#301

Post by dymax78 »

ipaddr wrote: post #268
AlecSchueler wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can it be "completely safe" if it's affecting your heart rate and blood pressure? Those are pretty basic systems to tamper with and altering them in ways contrary to what signals your brain is sending is inherently going against the normal functioning of your body.

Not sure how "Propranolol may cause heart failure in some patients" is considered safe.

And I’m not sure why propranolol would be continue to be prescribed, as it as been for 50+ years, for acute heart attacks if there was a substantial risk in the patients health deteriorating. It’s one of the oldest beta blockers in use.

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

#302

Post by dymax78 »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #290
sva_ wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have friend who was at nursing school, and she'd get them prescribed for the few occasions where she had to do a presentation, as she would get extremely nervous. She never took them after. Maybe she could've addressed the issue differently, but it worked for her, and she never got hooked. But milage varies, and so on. She also told me that at the hospital, benzos are readily available and they kinda hand then out…

I've been told that benzos are a good option for someone anxious about flying. They make the flight tolerable and help the person feel comfortable flying in the future. They may only need to learn that there's nothing to fear in flying, and benzos can help them learn that. I trust the person who told me that, but have heard a lot of benzo horror stories. (I'm not afraid of flying)

Unfortunately, I’m one of those individuals illogically terrified of flying. A small dose of a benzo (in my case, Ativan), makes the flight bearable.

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

#303

Post by johnisgood »

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…

There were times when I abused them. I had a pretty bad withdrawal that gave me a seizure. Now I take them to give me munchies. For that of course I must not take it for longer than 2 weeks. My depression and anxiety is treated in a different way. Benzodiazepines messes with my memory and cognition. Lorazepam seems to be the worst on memory, for me. Useful for dental appointments though.

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

#305

Post by raylad »

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…

Somewhat germane:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22371848/

Conclusions: Receiving hypnotic prescriptions was associated with greater than threefold increased hazards of death even when prescribed <18 pills/year. This association held in separate analyses for several commonly used hypnotics and for newer shorter-acting drugs. Control of selective prescription of hypnotics for patients in poor health did not explain the observed excess mortality.

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

#306

Post by PragmaticPulp »

ineedasername wrote: post #280
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI - The idea that stimulant response can be used as a diagnostic tool for ADHD is a myth. No researcher or professional who studies the subject actually takes that seriously. Nobody should be interpreting their response (or a child’s response) to stimulants as a diagnostic indicator for ADHD. It’s also worth noting they caffeine isn’t an effective ADHD treatment (it had been studied) and caffeine and Adderall don’t…

You say it's a myth, and yet I have direct knowledge of a case where it went that way. To be clear though, the stimulant response was not by itself the only diagnostic criteria. They we're engaged with a process of trying to determine a correct diagnosis. The child's response to a stimulant was one piece of data, and happened to be the one that made everything else click into place. If there is a myth here, it is onl…

> You say it's a myth, and yet I have direct knowledge of a case where it went that way.

Anecdotes like this are purely coincidental. Parents think they notice one thing, then later get an ADHD diagnosis and assume they’re both related.

Like I said, caffeine and ADHD medications don’t actually substitute for each other and have drastically different effects. Caffeine is not an effective ADHD medication, so it’s not relevant to the studies you’re linking.

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

#307

Post by PragmaticPulp »

somehnguy wrote: post #279
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comments like these are baffling. Where are people finding these psychiatrists who are blindly writing prescriptions and sending people out the door? Around here (US location) my medical professional friends are all hesitant to prescribe any controlled substances to more than a certain number of their patients for fear of getting flagged. Whenever I read these stories of people receiving benzos and other scheduled su…

I'm completely with you. In my personal experience doctors are extremely hesitant to prescribe these drugs. I saw multiple doctors for years about anxiety issues and the most I got prescribed was an antihistamine. I also suffer from chronic back pain due to a genetic issue and it's been pretty much impossible for me to get a prescription that does anything for it. I don't think people are lying about their experience…

I have a suspicion that many people who are getting these long-term benzo prescriptions aren’t just going to a random doctor and walking out with huge prescriptions. I think the vast majority of doctors wouldn’t dare risk their job or career like this.

I suspect there’s a lot of word of mouth references where patients are telling their friends which doctors prescribe which medications and giving guidance about what to say to get those prescriptions. This was definitely the case in the early opioid crisis years where the bulk of prescriptions were coming from a small number of doctors.

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

#308

Post by EricMausler »

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…

>There were months where I maybe got an hour or two of sleep a night.

I feel like this is very easy to gloss over while reading, but in actuality is quite an intense experience to have gone through. This would drive me actually insane, I don't know how to coped with it

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

#309

Post by deusum »

ineedasername wrote: post #238

>sleep-inducing dosage I don't know why benzos are used for sleep anymore. It's generally a higher dose than what's needed to manage anxiety, so there's increased risk of dependency and you build up tolerance quickly. In contrast, something like a low dose of Seroquel is at least as effective, has a much lower addictions & abuse profile, and tolerance doesn't build up very quickly at all. On top of which there should…

Seroquel is an anti-psychotic for bipolar, schizophrenia, and other disorders.

Maybe it makes you sleepy, but that doesn't feel like a safe alternate course. Not quite as aggressive as MJ taking propofol to sleep, I'll give you.

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

#310

Post by volkl48 »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #255
rhexs wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sort of a sad indictment of our system, but odds are the pharmacist sees the patient far more than the psychiatrist does.

Comments like these are baffling. Where are people finding these psychiatrists who are blindly writing prescriptions and sending people out the door? Around here (US location) my medical professional friends are all hesitant to prescribe any controlled substances to more than a certain number of their patients for fear of getting flagged. Whenever I read these stories of people receiving benzos and other scheduled su…

The job of psychiatrists in the US is in large part diagnosis and prescriptions, at least when it comes to the more routine mental health conditions.

If therapy is part of the treatment plan, they're often referred down to a psychologist or therapist for that part of things. A psychiatrist can do therapy....but their hourly rate is a whole lot higher.

----------------

As to personal experience, my current psych (ADHD), requires a ~15min "medication management" session about 4x a year. It's not exactly a ton of oversight.

The couple previous psychiatrists I've had when I lived in other places were about the same way once we got past the initial phase.

It is worth noting that my prescription (+ it's effectiveness) has been generally steady for a long time and I don't exactly have a profile in terms of age/dosage/history that suggests abuse risk.

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