I have led a pretty sheltered life; and it is probably better that way. Last night a kid came to the door selling some cleaning solution and telling me how my purchase would help him get into nursing school and away from the drug scene in inner-city Jacksonville, Florida. Who knew? I bought an overpriced bottle and he moved on. My conscience was assuaged.
Recently, I also became aware of another drug crisis. The dealers are out there selling our kids and our middle-aged and our elderly drugs that even Keith Richards – yes, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones could find such a bad drug that he had to warn us about it – warned us about nearly 50 years ago. These pushers happen to wear lab coats and stethoscopes and sit in medical offices or behind desks at pharmaceutical companies, so some of us don’t notice them very often.
The drugs they are pushing include many in the benzodiazepine family that are supposed to help with anxiety, seizures, insomnia and other conditions. The first such drug to be marketed, in 1960, was Librium (chlordiazepoxide), followed by Valium (diazepam) in 1963. Valium quickly became the most prescribed drug in both the United States and the UK; and perhaps the most abused. It is highly addictive and overdosing can lead to many serious consequences, including death. These dangers were recognized at least by 1966, when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote the Rolling Stones’ hit song, “Mother’s Little Helper” – the “helper” being Valium.1
The next widely marketed benzodiazepine was Klonopin (clonazepam), which was patented in 1964, and has been sold since 1975. Another rock music related story involves Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac. For what seems like decades, she was the poster girl for cocaine abuse. In 1986, she determined to kick that habit and checked into the Betty Ford Clinic. She was able to withdraw, but was prescribed Klonopin to assist in her sobriety. She continued to take Klonopin for the next eight years, until the side effects became too much for her. It was then she found that quitting the tranquilizer was even worse than getting off cocaine. The process took her several months, including 47 days of in-patient treatment. She describes the experience as: “I felt like someone opened up a door and pushed me into Hell.”2
Xanax (alprazolam) is another wildly popular benzodiazepine drug. It was first developed by Upjohn (which is now a part of Pfizer) in 1969, and has been marketed since 1981. Xanax, in both its original and generic forms, is still one of the 10 most prescribed drugs in the United States.
There are more than 20 different benzodiazepines currently being prescribed. According to an article in the February 2015 edition of JAMA Psychiatry, in 2008 (apparently the most recent year for which accurate data is available), more than 5% of US adults between the ages of 18 and 80 were prescribed one of more of these drugs – including at least one of every ten women over the age of 65.3 Xanax, alone, is responsible for more that 100,000 emergency room visits each year.
The FDA has approved drugs like Xanax for treatment regimens of up to eight weeks. As a Class IV controlled substance, 30-day prescriptions may be issued with up to five refills. Still, many physicians guide their patients through much longer periods of use (like the eight years for Stevie Nicks) as an “off-label” use. Why do they do that? To quote one doctor from another article in the February 2015 JAMA Psychiatry:
Benzodiazepines remain popular because of their consistent and reliable effectiveness against many symptoms of anxiety, relatively good tolerability, quick onset of action, and possibility of use on as as-needed basis. Furthermore, alternative medications, such as antidepressants, have not been as useful for anxiety disorders as they had initially seemed to be.4
However, the negative effects of long-term use are substantial and well recognized. They include depression, memory impairment, personality changes, nausea, dizziness, headaches, sleep problems and many other things. Because benzodiazepines are highly addictive, those problems become much worse as a person goes through withdrawal, and often continue for many months after withdrawal is completed. Recent research indicates that the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease increases by as much as 84% when the drugs are continued for more than six months.5
I am bringing all of this up now because I recently learned that someone I know well has been taking Xanax, exactly as prescribed by a doctor, for several years, and is now trying to withdraw. It is a terrible thing to watch someone who has been active and involved with life for more than six decades spend most of the time in bed worrying when the pain will end.
If anyone reading this believes in the power of prayer or healing energy, please send some for the many thousands of innocent people are fighting through this kind of withdrawal right now. They need it.6
I have a friend named Harry who told me, “My doctor is concerned that I have started drinking brake fluid. But I’m not worried; I can stop any time.” Would that it were so for Xanax.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfGYSHy1jQs