Posted by HIBA on December 28, 2002, at 23:59:25
In reply to Re: To John, posted by john7219 on December 26, 2002, at 0:16:20
Hello John,
What kind of psychosis do you think benzos cause? Earlier you carelessly attributed psychosis to long-term benzo intake, which is by no means made any sense and just to those benzo intakers at least in this forum, and surprisingly your later thread confesses psychosis is not a clinically qualified observation. Using benzos in high doses for a considerably long period of time and stopping them ABRUPTLY may cause toxic psychosis in rare cases.(Even this statement is controversial, because of the concommitant use of alcohol) Is this what you mean ? Klonopin is one of the benzos used to treat psychosis, and benzos are sometimes very vital in treating agitation related to psychosis. Librium (Chlordiazepoxide) is found to be very useful in some cases of psychosis, much useful than traditional antipsychotics. Ignoring all these facts will be unfair, especially to a group of medications on which millions rely and find relief. I have never seen a psychosis directly attributable to benzo intake. And those testimonials should be carefully screaned before making any conclusions. Because "sometimes evil is in details". I have heard some benzo horror stories in this forum and when it came to details, it was not benzos which I found to be blamed but the narrators themselves were to blame. Multiple drug using, underlying physical disorders, awkward and abrupt discontinuation of benzos.. there could be many reasons behind each and every benzo horror stories.
And about coming off benzos: A peson will really have a very hard time if he is under untreated severe anxiety disorder. Anxiety can wreck havoc in all departments of life and it often lead to paranoia and depression. And if the person consistently avoiding a medication which will give him back his normal self, it is simply idiotic. Anxiety is often chronic and long-term treatment with medications will be necessary to most of the patients. Denying benzos to such patients will lead them to alcoholism and eventually irreversible psychosis and other physical damages. And long-term benzo therapy is less problematic than long-term antidepressant therapy.
HIBA
poster:HIBA
thread:132841
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021223/msgs/133608.html