Posted by Kon on October 17, 2004, at 15:01:20
In reply to Re: Ativan questions, posted by Kon on October 17, 2004, at 10:41:40
I managed to locate a few papers on the incidence of dependency/withdrawal following long-term benzo use.
Rickels (1983) calculated the incidence of withdrawal after > 8 month (average 3 years)of daily benzo use to be about 43%. The incidence of withdrawal with < 8 months of daily benzo use was found to be 5%.
Noyes(1988)looked at 9 controlled long-term studies (mean 3 years, range 1-16 years) and found that abrupt benzo discontinuation resulted in withdrawal symptoms in about 45% of the patients.
Generally, reports that suggest very high incidence of benzo withdrawal (>80%)tend to include patients who have previously had difficulty discontinuing benzos (Ashton's study, for example). The high rates of withdrawal/dependency are then not surprising.
Thus, discontinuation of a benzo taken daily for < 8 months and at not too high doses, generally carries a small risk of producing withdrawal.
See:
poster:Kon
thread:403705
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041012/msgs/404174.html