What Are Benzodiazepines? Know Its Uses And Consequences

Benzodiazepines inhabit our nightstands and our bags. They are pills for the pains of life, the guarantee that insomnia will not find us, that the anxiety monster will remain dormant. These are sufferings miraculously eliminated by these prodigious but addictive drugs.

In the excellent film “ August: Osage County ” (Family Album, in Portuguese version), women generally solve their problems with pills, while men do it through alcohol. In it we could see Meryl Streep masterfully showing this dramatic reality that involves the regular and uncontrolled consumption of benzodiazepines, encouraged by some doctors who see in these drugs an easy, quick and economical resource to alleviate the existential suffering of their patients.

This movie is still a real sample of what many experts are finding these days: people addicted to legal drugs prescribed by their doctors. Patients need a bigger dose every day to feel good, and there are elderly people who have been consuming their little “sleeping pill” for decades and now see their quality of life compromised.

There are many shadows in the composition of these tranquilizers whose mission is to make our lives easier when difficulties, whether real or imagined, arise. There is no doubt about its effectiveness in the short term, which is great. However, as we know, anxiety or depression processes can be very long and it is necessary to use the medication for a long time. So there is the risk of addiction and the symptoms we already know.

What are benzodiazepines?

It is very likely that for many people, the word benzodiazepines means nothing. However, if we talk about Orfidal, Tranxilium, Lorazepam, Lexotam, Valium or Trankimazin, things change. A large part of the population has already taken one of them for a specific reason or certainly has a family member, friends or co-workers who use them daily.

But what are benzodiazepines really?

Benzodiazepines act as sedatives (slow down the body’s functions).
They are psychotropic drugs that act on the central nervous system. In other words, their action is not limited to relaxation and sedation, but they are also anticonvulsant, amnesic and muscle relaxants.

They increase the effect of a brain chemical called GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid).
GABA is a brain inhibitor produced in the cerebellum, basal ganglia and many areas of the spinal cord. Its function is to relax and reduce the activity of neurons.

A curious fact is that benzodiazepines arrived on the pharmaceutical market in the 1960s to replace barbiturates. Since then, and with the launch of the well-known Valium (diazepam), by the pharmaceutical company ROCHE in 1963, benzodiazepines have become the most consumed “drugs” in our history.

Uses and types of benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines are used to treat panic disorder, generalized anxiety, insomnia, alcohol withdrawal, epilepsy, affective disorders, to relieve surgical pain, and even to help detox certain drugs.

Furthermore, as revealed by several researches, especially the study carried out at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of São Jorge, Zaragoza (Spain), benzodiazepines are more frequently prescribed in nursing homes. A relevant fact that makes specialists wonder ‘if the clinical benefits of these drugs outweigh their adverse effects’.

On the other hand, we must emphasize that they are medications that can only be consumed under medical prescription, and although they can be combined with antidepressants or antipsychotics, it will always be a specialist who will prescribe them and will control the doses at all times.

Types of Benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines are classified according to their half-life in our body. Let’s see the details.

Extended duration: between 40 and 200 hours.

Clobazam
Chlorazepate.
Chlordiazepoxide.
Diazepam.
Flurazepam.
Medazepam.
Pinazepam.
Clothiazepam.
Prazepam.

Intermediate duration: between 20 and 40 hours.

Clonazepam
Bromazepam.
Flunitrazepam.
Nitrazepam

Short duration: between 5 and 20 hours

Alprazolam.
Lormetazepam.
Lorazepam.
Oxazepam.

Reduced duration: between 1 and 1.5 hours

Brothizol.
N-fidazolain.

The effects associated with benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines are very effective. They never fail, they help us to rest, they alleviate this desperate suffering after an emotional loss, and they make our workdays more bearable. But everything in life has a price, and like an evil god of the Greek pantheon, it forces us to make a pact, often impossible. We should not continue treatment beyond 4 to 6 weeks. Otherwise, it is very likely that we will generate a dependency.

However, life continues to suffer, problems weigh heavily, insomnia continues and anxiety devours us. We ask our doctor for help and he, without more resources and strategies, continues with the medications, leading us to a slow and devastating addiction.

The most common physical side effects of benzodiazepine addiction

Somnolence.
Dizziness.
Mental confusion.
Imbalance (especially in the elderly).
Speech disorders.
Muscle weakness.
Constipation.
Nausea.
Dry mouth.
Blurred vision.

Progressive effects on our memory associated with benzodiazepine consumption

Benzodiazepines significantly reduce our ability to memorize new information. Furthermore, its prolonged use interferes with our cognitive processes: it hinders concentration, the ability to solve problems, deduce information, relate ideas…

paradoxical effects

A “paradoxical drug reaction” is the appearance of a result opposite to the intended one. Many patients, after taking any type of benzodiazepine for several months or even years, experience one or more of the following symptoms:

Increased anxiety.
Feelings of anger or irritation.
Agitation.
Feeling of sadness.
Depersonalization (feeling of indifference to your environment).
Depression.
Derealization (feeling that your surroundings are not real).
Hallucinations.
Nightmares.
Personality change.
Psychoses.
Restlessness.
Suicidal thoughts or behaviors.

The effects of benzodiazepines in people over 60 years old

Doctors often prescribe short-acting benzodiazepines to treat insomnia in people over 60 years of age. It is a common procedure and aims to improve sleep quality, contributing to a better quality of life. However, many studies alert us to the different risks associated with the prolonged use of these drugs at older ages :

Cognitive and memory alterations.
Increased risk of falls and their consequences (such as hip fractures).
Increased probability of traffic accidents.
The use of benzodiazepines can also be an early marker in the development of some forms of dementia.

All of this brings us to a very clear conclusion: the long-term unjustified use of these drugs must be considered a public health problem.

Laura and the story of a prescription addiction

Laura is 39 years old, has two children aged 8 and 3, and works for an advertising company. It is a high position with a lot of pressure, goals to meet and a firm position in the market. There are days when it’s very difficult to deal with all this: playing the role of a mother, being a creative success and a woman who tries every day to control the dragon of anxiety.

A few weeks ago, she had to go to the hospital to get over a withdrawal crisis. It all started with a ringing in my ears. She couldn’t concentrate on anything else but those persistent hums. Then came the tingling in her arms and feet, the burning sensation in her mouth, and an awful sensitivity to light.

His mood changed, out of the blue. Her children started to get scared of her, and that was when her world got out of tune and life stopped rhyming. In her mind, nothing fit and she wanted to hide, disappear, dissolve into nothingness.

When she realized her addiction to benzodiazepines, she couldn’t believe it. It is very difficult to assume that it is possible to develop an addiction to a drug prescribed by doctors. However, anxiety and depression processes are long, and consultation time is very short. Under these circumstances, it is sometimes very difficult to control the administration of a drug.

Laura tried to stop taking the medications and realized it was impossible because the effects are devastating. Life is not a straight path, but a long zigzag slope, and so often the help of this pill is needed. Pills soothe, soothe and accommodate. However, benzodiazepine addiction is similar to heroin, and sometimes we have no choice but to attend an advanced treatment center to treat the addiction.

A resource as easy as it is dangerous, so cheap at first and so expensive afterwards

We cannot place the entire focus of responsibility on our doctors. The organization, systems and policies that articulate our environments do not facilitate this personalized attention for better diagnosis and treatment. In addition, factors such as unemployment, poor quality of work, crisis, poverty, loneliness or mismanagement of our emotions often accentuate these gaps where drugs act as auxiliaries, as dissipators of suffering and providing a better quality of life.

In conclusion, benzodiazepines are effective in the short term. Beyond this boundary, where a chemical substance acts as a sedative, there is a need to integrate other strategies, other approaches to untangle the knot in our lives through psychotherapy, personal will and real and understanding support from our social and family environment. A pill helps us, but the cure is in our hands.