Misused, abused, diverted, and counterfeited, benzodiazepines have serious potential for substance use disorder, and are among the leading causes of drug-related overdose deaths. Evidence indicates that prolonged use of benzodiazepines causes a wide range of adverse reactions, and withdrawal can be particularly challenging. Nevertheless, these negative aspects have yet to be thoroughly addressed within the medical community and remain virtually unknown to patients. This book offers an in-depth discussion of the downsides of this overused class of drugs and calls for their rational and dramatically reduced usage.

"Benzodiazepines were developed to treat legitimate medical needs. However, unbridled success and prescribing beyond their intended duration of use and the available data has led to excessive prescribing, extended utilization beyond good therapeutic practice, and unintended adverse effects and substance use disorder. This book is the first to bring to light and discuss the largely unrecognized and enigmatic problem of an exceedingly prolonged withdrawal syndrome from benzodiazepines that can persist for months or years in susceptible patients, and the medical need for better evidence-based prescribing of benzodiazepines, and a call for the recognition and better treatment of the prolonged withdrawal syndrome"--

FROM THE BACK COVER: Are you--or is someone you care about--taking tranquilizers or sleeping pills? You could be at risk of addiction without even knowing it. Benzos are the most commonly prescribed tranquilizers and sleeping pills, in use by millions of people. Doctors prescribe these drugs routinely without ever warning patients that regular use may cause a dangerous dependency. For many people, Benzos are much harder to quit than heroin, cocaine, crack and other illegal substances, even when taken under a physician's supervision. Benzo Withdrawal may last for months, even years. Get the facts about the drugs in your medicine cabinet--facts the pharmaceutical companies, and even the FDA, don't want you to know. The Benzo Book recounts the author's experience as an unwitting addict, with full details about minimizing withdrawal symptoms, and exposes the sociological, medical and economic factors which cause this widespread--yet largely unknown--problem.

Understanding and addressing the current opioid crisis requires knowledge of endogenous opioids (endorphins and enkephalins), but there is now evidence for a benzodiazepine crisis. Are there endogenous benzodiazepine-like substances—and what do they do? How do they affect antianxiety drugs and their adverse effects? Do they explain enigmatic prolonged benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome? This book raises important questions about the clinical consequences of ignoring the existence of or understanding the potential influence of endogenous benzodiazepines on the therapeutic effect of benzodiazepines, their adverse effects, and the problems of withdrawal from them and other benzodiazepine receptor agonists. FEATURES Discusses endogenous benzodiazepine-like substances—what do they do, and do they affect antianxiety drugs and their adverse effects? Presents information on enigmatic prolonged benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome Describes the compounds acting at the BDZ binding sites, both exogenous (classical BDZ drugs and BDZ from food and plants) and endogenous (endozepines) Assesses the putative interactions in physiology, pathology, and pharmacology of the compounds acting at the BDZ binding sites Dr. Raffa is Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy and Professor Emeritus at Temple University School of Pharmacy. He has co-authored or edited several books on pharmacology and thermodynamics, is a co-editor of two journals, is a past president of the Mid-Atlantic Pharmacology Society, and is the recipient of research and teaching awards. Dr. Amantea is Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences of the University of Calabria (Italy), where she is the leader of the Stroke Research Unit at the Section of Preclinical and Translational Pharmacology operating in the frame of the Italian Stroke Organization (ISO) Basic Science. She is a member of the Editorial Board and the Guest Editor of the 2016 Neuroscience section of Current Opinion in Pharmacology (Elsevier), and the founder and the editor of the CRC Press Frontiers in Neurotherapeutics series.

In recent years, patients, lay publications, and consumer groups have expressed concern about whether benzodiazepines are overprescribed. Psychiatrists have raised questions about the potential for these medications -- especially some of the newer, high-potency, short half-life compounds -- to produce serious side effects as well as to induce drug dependence. Benzodiazepine Dependence, Toxicity, and Abuse provides clinicians with a review of the available information on the potential hazards of benzodiazepine treatment and offers suggestions for the rational prescription of these medications.

The story of the benzodiazepines is a fascinating one: the synthesis of a long series of inert compounds and the abandonment of the project: months later, the renewal of the project and the discovery that this compound R05-0690 (Librium ®) was a sedative and muscle relaxant in laboratory animals: the recognition that its postulated structure was wrong and that it was in fact a member of an entirely new chemical class: the excitement caused by the discovery of the powerful taming effect of the drug in wild animals: the even greater excitement in medical circles when its dramatic anxiety relieving effects were cstablished in humans: the subsequent enormous world wide usc of drugs of the benzodiazepine group. I have reason to know the story well for during that period I worked in various capacities in research, marketing and manage ment in the British subsidiary of F. Hoffmann-Ia Roche. It was during this period that I became interested in whether dependence on benzodiazepines could occur and if so to what extent, but felt that this could be examined best from outside the concern. Having now retired from Roche back to academic medicine I have taken the opportunity to examine and analyse the evidence.

The disturbing connection between well-meaning physicians and the prescription drug epidemic. Three out of four people addicted to heroin probably started on a prescription opioid, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the United States alone, 16,000 people die each year as a result of prescription opioid overdose. But perhaps the most frightening aspect of the prescription drug epidemic is that it’s built on well-meaning doctors treating patients with real problems. In Drug Dealer, MD, Dr. Anna Lembke uncovers the unseen forces driving opioid addiction nationwide. Combining case studies from her own practice with vital statistics drawn from public policy, cultural anthropology, and neuroscience, she explores the complex relationship between doctors and patients, the science of addiction, and the barriers to successfully addressing drug dependence and addiction. Even when addiction is recognized by doctors and their patients, she argues, many doctors don’t know how to treat it, connections to treatment are lacking, and insurance companies won’t pay for rehab. Full of extensive interviews—with health care providers, pharmacists, social workers, hospital administrators, insurance company executives, journalists, economists, advocates, and patients and their families—Drug Dealer, MD, is for anyone whose life has been touched in some way by addiction to prescription drugs. Dr. Lembke gives voice to the millions of Americans struggling with prescription drugs while singling out the real culprits behind the rise in opioid addiction: cultural narratives that promote pills as quick fixes, pharmaceutical corporations in cahoots with organized medicine, and a new medical bureaucracy focused on the bottom line that favors pills, procedures, and patient satisfaction over wellness. Dr. Lembke concludes that the prescription drug epidemic is a symptom of a faltering health care system, the solution for which lies in rethinking how health care is delivered.