Posted by Viridis on March 3, 2004, at 1:32:51
In reply to DON'T BELIEVE BENZO.ORG!!!!!!, posted by ace on March 2, 2004, at 22:44:21
I could say a lot a lot about benzo.org and some of the other anti-benzo sites, but last time I did (OK, I was kind of sarcastic) I got a "please be civil" warning. So I'll just add my agreement with Ace, and point out a few things:
- look carefully at the qualifications of the people who run these sites and those who are cited as "experts" -- in particular, if someone is listed as a "doctor", check what field their doctorate is in (some have nothing to do with medicine or psychiatry);
- consider that testimonials are pretty easy to come by; even people who are being perfectly honest may attribute the problems they're having to a particular drug they've taken, whether it had anything to do with their condition or not;
- almost any med or class of meds is bound to have negative effects for some subset of users, which doesn't make these drugs dangerous for everyone;
- especially with anxiety disorders, it's very hard to separate "withdrawal" after discontinuation from a simple return to the previous anxiety condition (although there's no question that benzos and many other meds require a gradual taper after extended use);
- some of these sites devote an awful lot of attention to telling people how to sue their doctors, even if the doctor prescribed a med carefully, reasonably, and in good faith -- which raises questions about the real motivation behind the sites.
I could go on, but the point is that anyone can create a website and put whatever they want on it. I suspect that you could pick nearly any drug (including aspirin) and come up with "experts" who say it's dangerous and people who will testify that it's ruined their lives.
Benzos have been helping people for decades, have an excellent record of safety and effectiveness, and the people who need them most seem to have the fewest problems with them.
Having said all that, if a benzo is going to cause problems, Xanax appears (based on the available evidence) the most likely to so. Not a reason to avoid it (it's a wonderful med) -- just watch for tolerance etc. I do best using it occasionally, with Klonopin as my mainstay for anxiety. I had no major problems; I just developed tolerance quickly so I limit its use to maintain effectiveness at a fairly low dose. But that's just me, and we all react differently.
In any case, take the anti-benzo sites with a very large grain of salt.
poster:Viridis
thread:319551
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040228/msgs/319598.html