Posted by viridis on March 12, 2003, at 1:20:34
In reply to Re: Benzo Dilemma--What's the Deal?, posted by fachad on March 11, 2003, at 21:05:47
Benzos are not addictive for the vast majority of anxiety patients. They often cause dependency, just as most ADs do. "Addiction" is a strong term that is greatly overused, as has been disussed here a lot lately -- addiction involves loss of control over dosage, craving, negative effects on your life, etc.
I wish people (including doctors) would stop tossing this term around so casually; strange how it's only used for medications that are off-patent (= available as generics).
Considering that benzos have been rated as some of the safest psychiatric meds for long-term use by the very conservative World Health Organization, it's shocking that so many doctors naively cling to benzophobic attitudes. Fortunately, some will still prescribe these (generally quite benign) meds -- you just have to search around a bit.
poster:viridis
thread:208067
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030310/msgs/208322.html