Long term use of benzodiazepines?

Question by Killaballa: Long term use of benzodiazepines?
Been taking .25 mg of clonazepam for a few weeks for anxiety.

anyone taken them for years? if so, is this a big problem with addiction?

Best answer:

Answer by Az R
That’s a pretty tiny dose to be honest.

The fear of addiction is really overblown with benzodiazepines, and quite contrary to the actual clinical data. Basically the only time we see abuse of them is in patients who have had prior substance abuse problems – alcoholics, amphetamine addicts, opiate addicts, pot addicts. That sort of thing. In your average individual without the prerequisite medical history for addiction, it never shows up.

And yes, people take them for quite literally years. Some data collected two years back says there’s about 5 million Americans who take a benzo daily, and have done so for a period of five to twenty years. And they do so without abusing it, without increasing their dose, and without problems. The only one that turns up with any regularity is people getting themselves into situations where they suddenly aren’t taking it – they go on vacation, or they end up in the hospital and don’t think to mention it to their doctors.

The clinical data says quite clearly that they are safe and effective to use indefinitely. They have no long term physiological impact, it’s impossible to overdose on them by themselves (mixing them with alcohol is another story. You can’t take benzos and drink. Period.). Tolerance rapidly develops to the sedative effects of the drug, but does NOT develop to the anxiolytic effects – they’re mediated through different receptor isoforms, and the one responsible for anxiolysis does not have the biochemical mechanisms to produce tolerance. Many people however, confuse the sedation with the anxiolytic effect, and do freak out over that.

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