Benzodiazepines
Brain-Disabling Effects Of Benzodiazepines
By Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
From Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry
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Adam and Oswald (1989), in a double blind, placebo controlled study of triazolam and lormetazepam with forty subjects in each of the three groups, found that triazolam takers became more anxious on self-ratings, were judged more often to have had a bad response by an observer, more often wrote down complaints of distress, and suffered weight loss.
After about 10 days of regular triazolam they tended to develop panics and depression, felt unreal, and sometimes paranoid. According to the authors, Subjects' written comments suggested that from about 10 days after starting triazolam, they became liable to panic attacks, feelings of despair and derealization.
There were descriptions of panic episodes in public places in seven subjects during triazolam intake, but none during placebo or lormetazepam. ... Several reported their family relationships were changed. ... A number of triazolam subjects became paranoid. ... Two men developed paranoid psychoses.
During the withdrawal period, the anxiety of the triazolam patients fell quickly to normal levels. Soldatos, Sakkas, Bergiannaki, and Stefanis (1986) reported on serious adverse drug reactions in all five psychiatric inpatients during a clinical trial of 0.5 mg. triazolam and placebo.
The patients and nurses were blind in the study, but not the physician with medical responsibility for the patients. The study consisted of one week of placebo baseline, two weeks of triazolam administration, and one week of withdrawal on placebo. All five patients developed severe reactions to triazolam.
Case 1 developed anxiety and hallucinations on the last two days of triazolam administration and the first withdrawal day.
Case 2 had a sudden increase in anxiety and became irritable, uncooperative, and depressed. She became withdrawn and cried, and showed considerable impairment of memory and orientation.
On withdrawal of triazolam, she became more incoherent, expressing paranoid ideas of persecution that persisted about a week. She required Haldol to control her delusions.
Case 3 developed severe insomnia during withdrawal and reported considerable anxiety and irritability along with an uncontrollable fear of death, which persisted to the next day when she additionally manifested a marked degree of memory impairment.
Case 4, by the end of the second week of triazolam administration, became more depressed and manifested increasingly irritability and hostility...
Case 5, on the second week of triazolam administration, experienced increasing daytime anxiety and he became, for the first time since admission, irritable, hostile, and somewhat guarded and paranoid towards the unit staff.
The authors suggest that some of the symptoms may be related to disinhibition. They warn that these serious side effects may not be rare when triazolam is used in patients with major psychiatric conditions.
Rosenbaum, Woods, Groves et al (1994) found that 8 of 80 (10%) of patients treated with alprazolam in an outpatient clinical setting developed extreme anger or hostile behavior.
In the FDA's Safety and Review Evaluation of Clinical Data by J. Knudsen (1989) of Xanax for panic disorder, the issue of disinhibition from Xanax was addressed.
It stated The emergence of the rather paradoxical reaction of disinhibition often characterized by agitating, aggressive behavior, rage, hostility has been reported in patients treated with alprazolam.
Knudsen described several reports of adverse drug reactions described as disinhibition, rage, hostility occurring early in treatment at relatively low doses. One physician reported three different patients as suffering from these attacks.
Evidence from the FDA's Spontaneous Reporting System (SRS)
In 1987, Bixler, Kales, Brubaker and Kales, from the Sleep Research and Treatment center and Department of Psychiatry at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, reviewed adverse reactions to BZs recorded in the FDA's spontaneous reporting system.
They compared triazolam with two other BZs commonly used to induce sleep, temazepam (Restoril) and flurazepam (Dalmane). They controlled the reports for the number and size of prescriptions for each of the three drugs. They found:
AIn general, triazolam had much higher overall rates than did the other two drugs. Hyperexcitability and withdrawal effects were greatest for triazolam and least for flurazepam.
Amnesia was reported almost exclusively with triazolam. Rates for other cognitive as well as affective and other behavior effects were also much greater for triazolam and about equal for the other two drugs.
The affective and other behavioral disturbances category of adverse drug reactions included Depression, Psychotic Depression, Emotional lability, Euphoria, Hostility, Personality disorder, and Decreased libido.
Epidemiological studies at the FDA have consistently shown that alprazolam and especially triazolam produce more frequent and more serious adverse central nervous system effects, including drastic and life-threatening behavioral changes, than any other BZs.
I have reviewed the in-house memos with detailed analyses generated by the Division of Epidemiology and Surveillance, which is responsible for the SRS.
This division has consistently shown more concern about triazolam than has Paul Leber's Division of Neuropharmacological Drug Products, which originally approved the drug. The data from the epidemiology studies will now be described in detail for the first time in the literature.
Robert Bob Wise (1989), in a working paper for the FDA's Division of Epidemiology and Surveillance, made an executive summary of reports of hostility associated with exposure to triazolam.
Wise addresses a syndrome that consists of anger or rage, aggression, and some actual assaults and murders. He stated:
More such reports of this type have been received by the FDA for triazolam and alprazolam than for any other drug product regulated by the Agency.
Reporting rates, which adjust for differences in the extent of each drug's utilization, reveal much higher ratios of hostility reports to drug sales for both triazolam and alprazolam than for other benzodiazepines with similar indications.
The public health importance of these reactions lies in their severity, with occasionally lethal behavior unleashed, in the context of large population exposures as the popularity of both drugs continues to rise.
After a brief history of the FDA's increased focus on BZ-induced hostility, Wise explains Our concern with such reactions then broadened to the class of triazolobenzodiazepines, when another Increased Frequency Report included a reaction in which a 57 year old woman fatally shot her mother two hours after taking one-half milligram of triazolam.
When we looked at reports received during 1988, we found that triazolam's 1988 reporting rate for hostility reactions was more than twice as high as alprazolam's.
According to Wise (1989):
In the entire SRS (spontaneous reporting system) during early August, 1989, triazolam was the suspect drug in 113 reports coded as hostility, more than any other medication.
It was followed by alprazolam, which accounted for 78 reports. Only nine other drugs were suspected in more than ten cases each. Another 318 drug products had fewer hostility reports, most often one (60.4 percent of 318) or two (14.8 percent).@ Three fatalities were reported to the SRS for triazolam and one for alprazolam.
Five reports of alprazolam overdose were associated with assaults, including two murders. Reactions were reported across the dose range. Males (29) and females (26) were almost evenly distributed. Four alprazolam cases showed a reduction in hostility and rage reactions with a reduction in dose, confirming the drug's role in producing the behavior.
Wise summarized, This apparently excessive number of rage and similar reports with triazolam and alprazolam, after adjusting the differences in frequency of drug use, provides strong suspicion that a causal relationship may obtain.
It should be added, the dose dependency seen in several cases further confirms causation. Wise concluded that these reports cannot prove the presence of a causal relationship to the drug, but that they do imply a substantial public health importance for the potential hostility syndrome.
On April 21, 1989, Wise wrote an Increased Frequency Report for the FDA on the subject of alprazolam and rage.
Wise explained that the analysis was undertaken because Over a 12 month period, Upjohn received six reports of rage, agitation, anger, aggression, and similar behavioral and emotional symptoms after exposures to alprazolam.
All but one involved manifested or verbalized murderous impulses. According to Wise: AFrom spontaneous reports alone, we cannot estimate the actual incidence of alprazolam-induced rage reactions.
But in light of the widely acknowledged, substantial under-reporting to spontaneous surveillance systems in general and the to the FDA's SRS in particular, it is entirely possible that six reports of this kind of reaction within a single year might reflect sixty or more in reality.
After reviewing all reports made to Upjohn and the FDA, Wise concluded:
An increase in annual frequency of rage reports with alprazolam promoted us to compare hostility reports more generally across several anxiolytic benzodiazepines.
Alprazolam appears to have an excessive reporting rate for events coded with hostility, even after adjusting for differences in the extent of each drug's utilization.
The numbers and potential gravity of these reactions and their possible relationship to dosage all appear to conflict with current labelling's brief description of paradoxical effects that occur only in rare instances and in a random fashion.
On October 17, 1988, Charles Anello, Deputy Director of the Office of Epidemiology And Biostatistics, referred to an earlier FDA comparison of spontaneous reports concerning triazolam to two other BZs used to treat insomnia, temazepam (Restoril) and flurazepam (Dalmane).
Anello stated that there was a proportionately increased number of reports concerning abnormal behavior in regard to triazolam.
Anello reported on a further analysis comparing triazolam and temazepam, showing that for triazolam the FDA receives proportionally more adverse drug reaction reports (ADRs), more serious ADRs, and more reports of five selected behavioral drug reactions.
On September 12, 1989, Anello reported within the FDA on Triazolam and Temazepam--Comparison Reporting Rates. He found that adverse drug reactions were reported eleven times more frequently with triazolam than with temazepam.
The relative reporting rate was 46 to 1 for amnesia, 9 to 1 for agitation, anxiety and nervousness, 16 to 1 for psychosis (psychosis, hallucinations, paranoid reaction, and acute brain syndrome), and 19 to 1 for hostility and intentional injury.
Anello's analysis indicated that there were no convincing explanations for these differences other than actual drug effects; but he did not make a formal determination of causality.
However, in a handwritten analysis attached the document that was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, there is a summary entitled Other Evidence in Favor of Effect of Triazolam which we produce in full:
1) Temporal relationship of reactions to initial dose
2) Large proportion of spontaneous resolution with drug withdrawal pos[itive] dechallenge [In dechallenge, a drug is withdrawn to see if an adverse reactions then stops, confirming that it was drug induced.]
3) a few reports of positive rechallenges [In rechallenge, after an adverse drug effect disappears upon withdrawal of the drug, the drug is given again to see if the reaction can be repeated and reconfirmed.]
4) reports of reactions in otherwise normal individuals
5) corroborating reports in literature (including WHO data--similar magnitude of reactions in Canada in data through 3/87)
Their analysis indicates some of the logical, scientific steps by which data from spontaneous reporting were used by an unidentified FDA official to confirm causality in regard to Halcion and adverse behavioral effects (for a further discussion of the scientific process in regard to epidemiological studies, see appendix).
An August 11, 1989 in-house FDA memo from Paul Leber and Thomas Laughren to an upcoming Psychopharmacological Drugs Advisory Committee Meeting (PDAC), the FDA officials commented that Spontaneous reporting of adverse events in the United States subsequent to the marketing of Halcion has consistently revealed a pattern of excess reporting of events for Halcion compared to the two other marked benzodiazepine hypnotics.
He brought up the earlier hope that the recommendations to reduce the dose of Halcion would result in a reduction of the high rates of reported adverse behavioral reactions.
However, this proved to be a false hope. Leber observed, Halcion continues to exhibit an excess of adverse events reported compared to one comparitor agent [Restoril] in regard to the cluster of behavioral adverse reactions.
In 1991, Diane Wysowski and David Barash, also from the FDA's Division of Epidemiology and Surveillance, published a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
A footnote stated, This article contains the professional views of the authors and does not constitute the official position of the Food and Drug Administration.
Using the FDA's spontaneous report system, they compared triazolam and temazepam through 1985 for confusion, amnesia, bizarre behavior, agitation, and hallucinations.
They concluded, Considering the extent of use, reporting rates for triazolam were 22 to 99 times those for temazepam, depending upon the reaction. Echoing the handwritten remarks appended to the in-house report by Anello (1990), the authors summarize:
Factors that indicate a causal association between triazolam and adverse behavioral reactions include corroborating case reports and sleep laboratory studies in the literature, reports of reactions in otherwise normal persons, acute onset and temporal relationship to reactions with initial dose, spontaneous recoveries and return to normalcy with drug discontinuation, and occurrences of positive rechallenge.
Also, the high benzodiazepine receptor affinity with triazolam has been postulated as a possible biological mechanism.
While unable to completely exclude the possibility that some selection factors are operating to produce higher reporting rates for triazolam, nonetheless they find that the evidence suggests a greater occurrence with triazolam and than with temazepam.
Andreadis and Schirmer (1992) responded critically for Upjohn with a letter and Wysowski and Barash (1992) then tried to answer their objections. American and British Responses Diverge.
Finally, in November 1991, the FDA approved new labelling for Halcion (Food and Drug Administration, April 1992).
The new label emphasizes that triazolam is indicated for short-term use, and specifies 7-10 days. Treatment lasting longer than 2 to 3 weeks requires a complete reevaluation of the patient. In addition, the label emphasizes the use of the lowest possible dose.
Here is the new warning in the Halcion label as found, for example, in the 1994 Physicians' Desk Reference:
A variety of abnormal thinking and behavior changes have been reported to occur in association with the use of benzodiazepine hypnotics, including HALCION.
Some of these changes may be characterized by decreased inhibition, eg, aggressiveness and extroversion that seem excessive, similar to that seen with alcohol and other CNS depressants (eg, sedative/hypnotics).
Other kinds of behavioral changes have been reported, for example, bizarre behavior, agitation, hallucinations, depersonalization.
In primarily depressed patients, the worsening of depression, including suicidal thinking, has been reported in association with the use of benzodiazepines.
The warning concludes with the following:
As with some, but not all benzodiazepines, anterograde amnesia of varying severity and paradoxical reactions have been reported following therapeutic doses of HALCION. Data from several sources suggest that anterograde amnesia may occur at a higher rate with HALCION than with other benzodiazepine hypnotics.
The final label change was negotiated and approved under the authority of Paul Leber, director of the Division of Neuropharmacological Drug Products, the division responsible for Halcion's original approval.
In several ways, the label seems to fall far short of conclusions generated by both the literature and the division responsible for postmarketing surveillance.
The FDA label does mention the disproportionate reporting of amnesia; but by omission it leads the reader to believe that the behavioral effects did not occur with increased frequency.
Instead of linking directly to Halcion the enormously increased risk for violence, psychosis and other behavioral extremely hazardous abnormalities, label notes these changes have been reported in association with the use of benzodiazepine hypnotics, including triazolam.
Charles Anello, Deputy Director of the Office of Epidemiology And Biostatistics, reported on a comparison of adverse drug reaction reports for Halcion and Restoril.
For Halcion versus Restoril, the relative reporting rate for agitation, anxiety and nervousness was 9-1; for psychosis, 16 to 1; and for hostility and intentional injury, 19-1. Great Britain took a stronger stand and ended up banning Halcion.
On October 1, 1991, the Committee on the Safety of Medicines (CSM) gave notice of the withdrawal of Halcion from the market because of concerns about safety, especially in regard to causing memory loss and depression (Brahams, 1991; Asscher, 1991).
On December 9, 1991, the Committee on Safety of Medicines (1991) responded to Upjohn's appeal with a definitive scientific conclusion about the dangers of Halcion (p. 1).
It found what it called a clearly established causal relationship between Halcion and adverse psychiatric effects.
These adverse effects occurred, in the CSM's opinion, far more frequently than with other BZs. The CSM declared that the spontaneous reporting system data from the US and England confirmed or strengthened the connection between Halcion and various psychiatric side effects.
Concerning the FDA epidemiological data, the CSM observed that despite differences of opinion within the FDA, the US data provided a signal requiring further investigation (p. 10).
BZs As Instruments of Suicide Some of the tricyclic antidepressants and barbiturates are probably more toxic than BZs taken alone.
But when BZs are combined with other drugs, such as alcohol, their lethality is increased. Overall, the BZs account for many more suicides than most physicians probably realize.
A survey in Britain covering the decade of the 1980s demonstrated large numbers of successful suicides using BZs, alone and in combination with alcohol (Serfaty and Masterton, 1993; also see Buckley, et al. 1995). Serfaty and Masterton found 891 fatalities with BZs alone and 591 in combination with alcohol.
The total of all poisonings attributed to BZs was 1576 during the ten year period, putting them ahead of aspirin/salicylates at 1308 as well as amitriptyline (1083) and dothiepin at 981. That latter two drugs accounted for over half the fatal poisonings attributed to antidepressants.
Among the BZs, two commonly prescribed for sleep, flurazepam (Dalmane) and temazepam (Restoril), had the most deaths per million prescriptions (15.0 and 11.9 respectively).
They were more dangerous than about half the antidepressants surveyed by the same methods. Triazolam (Halcion) had far fewer deaths per million prescriptions (5.1) than Dalmane or Restoril; but it was still above the mean for anxiolytic BZs (3.2).
In estimated deaths per million patients, the rank order among all BZs in Britain was dominated by the hypnotics.
Dalmane (90 per million) was first; Restoril (71) was second; the British hypnotic, flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) (49), was third; and Halcion was fourth (30). Another British hypnotic, nitrazepam (Mogadon and others) (26) was fifth.
In death per million patients, among the anti-anxiety drugs, prazepam (Centrax) (25 estimated deaths per million patients) and alprazolam (Xanax) (24) were close behind triazolam and nitrazepam.
BZ-Induced Cognitive Dysfunction Cognitive impairment, including memory impairment and confusion, is a well-known phenomenon in association with BZs (Ashton, 1995; APA, 1990; Golombok, Moodley and Lader, 1988; Hommer, 1991).
Xanax and Halcion are especially prone to produce cognitive deficits. Individuals who take Halcion to sleep on an airplane may end with a blank in their memories for the period surrounding the trip.
Students who take BZs before exams in order to relax or to get sleep are in danger of losing some of the material they have been studying. Triazolam produced more sedation and greater impairment of psychomotor performance at the same dose in healthy elderly persons than in healthy young persons (Greenblatt et al., 1991).
Effects on Sleep and the EEG The effects of the BZs on the EEG resemble those of other sedative-hypnotic agents, including decreased alpha activity and increased low-voltage fast activity, especially beta activity (Rall, 1990).
Their effects on sleep are also similar to those other CNS depressants, and provide a window into the dysfunctions they produce (Rall, 1990).
Before the brain rebounds after one or more doses, the BZs decrease sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep) and reduce the number of awakenings.
The overall time in REM sleep is usually shortened, but the number of cycles of REM may be increased later in sleep. Total sleep duration is usually increased. There are complex effects on the dream process.
Within a short time of starting Halcion, rebound begins to the dominate the clinical picture, and insomnia worsens. Nishino, Mignot and Dement (1995) observe that short-acting BZs were initially preferred for elderly patients.
They remark, However, it has since been found that short-acting benzodiazepines induce rebound insomnia (a worsening of sleep beyond baseline levels on discontinuation of a hypnotic, rebound anxiety, anterograde amnesia, and even paradoxical rage.
In general, the usefulness of BZs in insomnia is temporary at best. They do not provide for normal sleep, but rather for a disruption in various aspects of the normal cycle.
The Probability Of Permanent Brain Damage There have been relatively few studies on the persistence of cognitive deficits following termination of BZ treatment.
Despite the analogy with alcohol-induced cognitive dysfunction and dementia, most review articles and book chapters do not raise the issue. As I have previously noted (1991), patients on high doses of BZs develop chronic cognitive impairments (Golombok, Moodley, and Lader, 1988; Lucki, Rickels, and Geller, 1986).
There is little literature concerning these effects.
At least two reports indicate brain atrophy in association with long-term BZ use (Lader and Petursson, 1984; Schmauss and Krieg, 1987).
There seem to be no follow up studies concerning these critical questions. Ashton (1995) is among the few reviewers to show concern about the possibility of BZ-induced persistent cognitive deficits or brain damage.
He notes the lack of studies and comments, It remains possible that subtle, perhaps reversible, structural changes may underlie the neuropsychological impairments shown in long-term benzodiazepine users.
Dependence And Withdrawal Alcohol-like withdrawal symptoms from the long-term use of excessively high doses of BZs is well-established.
Withdrawal can take two to twenty days to develop after abrupt termination of the drug, depending on the half-life of the particular BZ. The first signs may be insomnia, irritability, and nervousness.
This can progress to a state that includes abdominal cramps, muscle cramps, nausea or vomiting, trembling, sweats, hyperarousal and hypersensitivity to environmental stimuli, confusion, depersonalization, anxiety and obsessional states, psychosis and organic brain syndrome, and seizures.
Occasional case reports suggest that even slow withdrawal may not obviate serious withdrawal symptoms.
It is unclear if gradual withdrawal merely extends the process over time rather than avoiding it (Noyes, 1992). Many symptoms can take weeks or months to fully subside, leaving the patient with prolonged anxiety or depression (Ashton, 1995). I have seen patients who felt they had not regained their pre-drug condition many months or years later.
Kales, Manfredi, Vgontzas, Bixler, Vela-Bueno, and Fee (1991), in a placebo controlled sleep lab study, showed that even under brief, intermittent administration and withdrawal of triazolam, and to a lesser extent temazepam, patients experienced rebound insomnia, thereby predisposing to drug-taking behavior and increasing the potential for drug dependence.
There are estimates that 50% or more of patients taking BZs in therapeutic doses over a year will become physically dependent, developing withdrawal symptoms on abrupt cessation (Noyes, 1992; Ashton, 1995).
Among the BZs used primarily for the treatment of anxiety or panic, alprazolam seems to have an especially bad record. In the field of drug addiction, Xanax is the most frequently implicated psychiatric drug (Breggin, 1991).
Often it occurs in cross-addiction with alcohol and other sedatives. Withdrawal problems and rebound increases in anxiety and panic were so extreme in key studies used for FDA approval of Xanax for panic disorder that many or most patients had more frequent or severe symptoms at the end of the studies than before they took the drug (reviewed in Breggin, 1991).
Some patients can find it difficult to withdraw from as little as 0.5 clonazepam each night for sleep. Even motivated patients have sometimes developed such a fear of trying to sleep without BZs that they cannot undertake a serious effort. The fear is in part psychological. But it is also based on the frightening experiencing rebound insomnia.
Physicians erroneously prescribe BZs in ever-increasing doses, mistakenly thinking that their patient's anxiety was spontaneously increasing rather than rebounding from the drug. Even if the ultimate dose remains within the recommended range, patients can roller coaster with anxiety or other mental aberrations through each day between doses.
The patients lives can become devoted to finding the right drug and taking it at the right time. It requires a physician's patience and understanding, and often a period of many months, in order to wean some individuals off the BZs.
At the end of the weaning, patients may discover that nearly all of their symptoms were drug-induced. I discuss the general principles of drug withdrawal in outpatient practice in greater detail in Talking Back to Prozac. Patients taking large doses of BZs need detoxification in a hospital setting.
Where patients have not been properly monitored by physicians, they may end up taken large doses of BZs for prolonged periods of times. Their daily lives may cycle from periods of excessive sedation when they appear drunk to periods of hyperarousal and anxiety as they undergo partial withdrawal.
Friends and family may attribute their symptoms to mental illness until, for example, the patient begins to stumble about in a drunken manner or collapses in a stupor after one alcoholic drink during a holiday dinner.
In retrospect, it will be apparent that the patient was, for months, too intoxicated to properly evaluate his or her own condition or to exercise judgment in regard to the drug effects.
Often the patient's memory for the period of time will be severely impaired. Sometimes they will have committed irresponsible and even illegal acts.
In summary, the benzodiazepines can produce a wide variety of abnormal mental responses and hazardous behavioral abnormalities, including rebound anxiety and insomnia, psychosis, paranoia, violence, antisocial acts, depression, and suicide.
The BZs impair cognition, especially memory, and can cause confusion. They probably can cause brain atrophy. They are habit-forming and addictive, and when taken in large doses for a period of time, severe withdrawal syndromes can develop on termination of the drug.
Mixed with alcohol and other sedatives, their hazards multiply. Halcion and Xanax so commonly produce a variety of potentially disastrous adverse reactions that they should not be prescribed by physicians.
If a physician or patient decides to use another of the BZs, the drug should be prescribed in the smallest possible dose for the shortest possible time, usually no more than a week at a time.
The physician, the patient, and the family or close friends should be alert for possible adverse drug reactions.
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