Benzos Do you worry about benzos causing dementia?

[when I dream]

Thats what I was thinking Seiko...all the older people I know one whatever benzo they are taking knocks them out and they forget shit(if I remember it says this medication may be stronger in elderly patients) and valium has been around forever...seems like if it did cause something like this it would be more well known by now, I'm sure there are people who have been taking valium by the handfulls everyday since the 60s,mothers little helper, now like grandmas get her relaxation on helper.

Diazepam has been on the market (legal or black) since 1963. I wouldn't really call that forever. It makes sense to me that it would be around this time that the medical community would start to see this effect manifest itself. Chorodiazepoxide was discovered in 1955, and by 1960 Hoffman La Roche was marketing it as Librium. Five years really isn't long enough to know whether or not a drug can produce ill effects decades later. It was 15 years after benzos hit the market that the medical community even realized that they produce their effects (at least some of them) through GABA manipulation.

 

[sacsky]

I wonder if phenibut can also cause dementia. This stuff is probably even less studied.

 

[Kilfer]

benzos are pretty damn safe, cause they've been around for many years.

Many drugs that are not safe at all have been around for much longer so longevity is not always synonymous with safety. The initial assessment that benzos were safer than barbiturates were based on biased comparison between a weak benzo (Librium) and a very potent barbiturate (Nembutal) during the media hype that followed Marilyn Monroe`s death where the latter drug was implicated, along with, IIRC, chloral hydrate, a non-barbiturate but potent hypnotic. Conditions that required the use of such powerful hypnotics would certainly not respond to a meek benzo like Librium so over the last century benzo potency has increased to the point where many are only marginally safer than strong barbiturtate hypnotics: flunitrazepam, temazepam, nitrazepam, etc.

Temazepam in particular combines high-potency with fast-onset, a profile not unlike that of pentobarbital (Nembutal) and secobarbital. As expected its abuse profile is also very similar to the latter, as are the risks associated with OD's and WD's following prolonged abuse. That's why DEA wants it on Schedule III but the pharma lobby is resisting: to them having a benzo upgraded to the same schedule as the potent barbiturates would bring official sanction that some benzos at least, are no safer than barbiturates, putting an end to the myth.

 

[figaro44]

Correlation doesn't equal causation. I feel like I'm on the right medicine the right dose. I have ptsd my anxiety levels are high. Ive been on xanax which I could feel some sedation due to the quick release short acting pill. I h
take klonopin now, works great and it lasts 12 hrs.not as strong of an onset or potential for abuse wirh the longer half life.