Benzos Diazepam and Cognitive Impairment

[Michael_25]

Does long-term benzo use cause cognitive impairment? More specifically, does it affect one's short-term memory? I've been on Valium for the past 8 years and I'm not sure whether it is in part responsible for my poor short-term memory.

 

[MsDiz]

Oh definitely there are long term issues from taking diazepam and one is forgetfulness.

 

[Phantasia]

Benzos are notorious for fucking with your memory. I have a friend who finally kicked her benzo habit 2 years ago and her short term memory has still not fully returned.

 

[Drag2019]

Long-term benzodiazepine use can and will shrink your brain (literally shrink the size of your brain) just like it does to long-term alcoholics and chronic NMDAr users such as drugs like Ketamine. Food for thought alongside tolerance withdrawal being a risk especially after age 60ish gets more likely as with the higher a dose of benzos your on daily the more risk of developing tolerance withdrawal. That means even if you take the same dose for example you can develop agoraphobia (fear of leaving the house) but everyone develops a different set of tolerance withdrawal symptoms.

I'm not sure how long it takes as I'm sure there are many factors and it varies. I think if 20 years go by that might be around the time things start to take it's toll on the brain.

Unlike alcoholics though which can cause all kinds of physical damage most notably to the liver and pancreas and a whole list of other horrible problems like decrease protein absorption or synthesis by like up to 50%... to be honest I forget the exact mechanism.

 

[dopamimetic]

Benzos feel cognitively limiting to me why I dislike them, much more so when I tried to use recreationally than when in bad anxiety. There's always a balance between glutamatergic excitation and GABAergic inhibition and an excess of both is bad, in the short term too much glutamate is worse as it causes excitotoxicity and brain cells dying while the shrinkage from benzos will probably come from like recycled synapses which were starving of input.

Chronic, higher dose use of NMDAr antags causes visible changes / toxicity indeed after at least .5g of K for 6 months but also many of the probands were poly drug users and stims greatly exacerbate the damage done. I'm not sure and would love to know more but would say that using K medically against depression (once a week or so and not more than maybe 100mg that is) or tripping once a month or so shouldn't cause much problems.

NMDAr toxicity is mediated by different mechanisms than benzo shrinkage as using a benzo together with K alleviates the toxicity but also blunts out the experience. Possibly, but not sure, you could also take the benzo just when coming down from the disso. The norepinephrine lowering agent clonidine offers some protection too it seems.

Alcohol should be the worst of all because it affects both NMDAr's as well as GABA receptors but leaves the latter unagonized when the brain would need it most, during hangover. The cognitive problems in chronic alcoholics are striking for sure but again, you don't get that exact sort from benzos only. Would say it is crucial to taper very slowly after long term use and avoid rushing into withdrawal as that will for sure be excitotoxic.

Brain damages in ketamine addicts as revealed by magnetic resonance imaging - PMC

Ketamine, a known antagonist of N-methyl-D-aspartic (NMDA) glutamate receptors, had been used as an anesthetic particularly for pediatric or for cardiac patients. Unfortunately, ketamine has become an abusive drug in many parts of the world while ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Effect of Chronic Alprazolam Intake on Memory, Attention, and Psychomotor Performance in Healthy Human Male Volunteers - PMC

Alprazolam is used as an anxiolytic drug for generalized anxiety disorder and it has been reported to produce sedation and anterograde amnesia. In the current study, we randomly divided 26 healthy male volunteers into two groups: one group taking ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Alcohol consumption and brain health - PMC

Even moderate drinking is linked to pathological changes in the brain

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[nznity]

Benzos feel cognitively limiting to me why I dislike them, much more so when I tried to use recreationally than when in bad anxiety. There's always a balance between glutamatergic excitation and GABAergic inhibition and an excess of both is bad, in the short term too much glutamate is worse as it causes excitotoxicity and brain cells dying while the shrinkage from benzos will probably come from like recycled synapses which were starving of input.

Chronic, higher dose use of NMDAr antags causes visible changes / toxicity indeed after at least .5g of K for 6 months but also many of the probands were poly drug users and stims greatly exacerbate the damage done. I'm not sure and would love to know more but would say that using K medically against depression (once a week or so and not more than maybe 100mg that is) or tripping once a month or so shouldn't cause much problems.

NMDAr toxicity is mediated by different mechanisms than benzo shrinkage as using a benzo together with K alleviates the toxicity but also blunts out the experience. Possibly, but not sure, you could also take the benzo just when coming down from the disso. The norepinephrine lowering agent clonidine offers some protection too it seems.

Alcohol should be the worst of all because it affects both NMDAr's as well as GABA receptors but leaves the latter unagonized when the brain would need it most, during hangover. The cognitive problems in chronic alcoholics are striking for sure but again, you don't get that exact sort from benzos only. Would say it is crucial to taper very slowly after long term use and avoid rushing into withdrawal as that will for sure be excitotoxic.

Brain damages in ketamine addicts as revealed by magnetic resonance imaging - PMC

Ketamine, a known antagonist of N-methyl-D-aspartic (NMDA) glutamate receptors, had been used as an anesthetic particularly for pediatric or for cardiac patients. Unfortunately, ketamine has become an abusive drug in many parts of the world while ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Effect of Chronic Alprazolam Intake on Memory, Attention, and Psychomotor Performance in Healthy Human Male Volunteers - PMC

Alprazolam is used as an anxiolytic drug for generalized anxiety disorder and it has been reported to produce sedation and anterograde amnesia. In the current study, we randomly divided 26 healthy male volunteers into two groups: one group taking ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Alcohol consumption and brain health - PMC

Even moderate drinking is linked to pathological changes in the brain

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

I had a friend in rehab who used to shoot multiple vials of K a day, he was in his early thirties and would piss like 10 times a day, even more often than my 67 y/o dad.

 

[dopamimetic]

I had a friend in rehab who used to shoot multiple vials of K a day, he was in his early thirties and would piss like 10 times a day, even more often than my 67 y/o dad.

Yeah, that's an unfortunate truth about the arylcyclohexylamine dissociatives, a metabolite of them is toxic to the renal tract. K appears to be the worst, I experienced some irritation and frequent urge to piss too when I was heavily into deschloroketamine but with reducing use it healed even without abstaining for longer. They are investigating the toxicity currently, maybe we already have some more facts out there, need to check.

Lithium is toxic to the kidneys, mechanisms are not related to my knowledge but they found out that some diuretic (I think) protects you against the toxicity and maybe something can be done about K too. The renal toxicity is not related to neurological changes afaik.

 

[nznity]

Yeah, that's an unfortunate truth about the arylcyclohexylamine dissociatives, a metabolite of them is toxic to the renal tract. K appears to be the worst, I experienced some irritation and frequent urge to piss too when I was heavily into deschloroketamine but with reducing use it healed even without abstaining for longer. They are investigating the toxicity currently, maybe we already have some more facts out there, need to check.

idk how some people can do that much K, with 50mg IV i'm gone in 7 seconds for the next 20 mins. I repeat that once then I'm done with it.

 

[dopamimetic]

You make me jealous with such a low dosage putting you into dissociative anesthesia. I can do a gram during 12h without reaching a hole, or acute doses of as much as the nasal tissue is able to absorb. Deschloro is better, it is active starting from 10mg even with tolerance and much less physically toxic, as well as the 2-fluoro derivate.
K has a better IV bioavailability but would say you have an outstandingly low tolerance. We have a guy here on BL who went through 25g in a few days, his own statement and while it sounds crazy, I don't think he's lying.

 

[geekgrl]

I find that once you have repeatedly dosed benzos I lose my short memory. It seriously scared my friends, I couldn't remember jack shit. I'm really wary of it nowadays. I'd smoke a bong, then another, then another. I couldn't remember that I had just smoked one, just found it in my hands and thought I must need one, after just having one.

 

[Drag2019]

Obvious benzos don't cause anywhere near the same damage the brain as dissociatives or in the same way at all. I was just using to compare things that effect the brain in extremely negative ways. I mean I can't think of anything of psychoactive substances to compare it to.

Problem is DCK doesn't have the same medical properties as esketamine from my experience the afterglow relief from is way better racemic ketamine too.