Tranquilizer Dependency: LSUMC Study to Help Women Kick Drug Habit

              Tranquilizer dependency
LSUMC study to help women kick drug habit
By SALLY REESE
Times Medical Writer
If you are a woman who takes
Valium or any other minor tran-quilizer,
and you'd like to stop, the
LSU Medical School here wants you.
The medical school is seeking pa-tients
for a project to help women who
want to get off the drugs.
Its psychiatry department has been
funded for a study of non-pharma-c
o l o g i c a l a p p r o a c h e s to
benzodiazepene dependence among
women.
The benzodiazepenes are the anti-anxiety
drugs, better known by their
trade names as Valium, Librium,
Serax and Tranxene.
The study will be supported by a
biomedical research grant from the
National Institutes of Health. Its prin-cipal
investigator is Dr. Ronald G.
Nathan, a psychologist. Co-in-vestigators
are Dr. Simon Sebastian,
psychiatrist; Dr. Dean Robinson, resi-dent
psychiatrist; and Dr. Don Cherek,
psychologist.
They are looking for women to
participate in the study. They seek a
number of those who take the minor
tranquilizers for the relief of anxiety,
but would like to get off the drugs.
"Women who use the drugs
chronically and recognize that they
cannot do without the medication
might be reluctant to admit this to
their families or physicians," said the
LSU team. "It is hoped that this study
will help them to safely withdraw
from the drugs."
The grant was written for women
because physicians write twice as
many Valium prescriptions for wom-en
as men, according to a statement
issued by the investigators.
About half of all Valium prescrip-tions
are written for the relief of
anxiety, and most are written by fami-ly
doctors, for patients between 30 and
50 years of age.
"Valium is appropriately pre-scribed
for the most part," Sebastian
commented.
During the past decade, it was the
most frequently prescribed drug in the
United States. About 10 million Amer-icans
took the tranquilizer in 1978,
according to the LSU team.
The extensive, worldwide use of this
and other minor tranquilizers was
attributed to "their effectiveness as
anti-anxiety agents, sleeping medica-tions,
muscle relaxants and anti-con-vulsants."
It also was due to "their
high level of safety, including their
compatibility with other drugs."
In recent years, however, there has
been a growing concern about the
widespread use of the anti-anxiety
drugs.
Prescriptions for tranquilizers rose
from about 25 million in 1964 to about
80 million in 1973, according to the
LSU team. This sharp rise caused
alarm in this country and led some
people to predict that if it were to
continue nearly every American
would be on psychotropic drugs even-tually.
That did not happen. The anti-anxie-ty
drugs reached their peak in 1973,
and then started sliding. In recent
years, prescriptions have dropped to
about 33.6 million, according to the
LSU group.
Sensational reports of misuse and
abuse (in the news media and con-gressional
hearings) were reportedly
"contributing factors" in the decline.
"The drugs were accused of altering
the patient's personality, making him
weak, passive and submissive, angry
and hostile, preventing him from solv-ing
his own problems, and rapidly
producing tolerance which led to in-creased
intake and addiction."
But the case against these drugs
remains weak, said these in-vestigators.
"As many physicians
have pointed out, Congress may have
practiced poor medicine. These re-ports
may have actually prevented
patients from using the drugs when it
was appropriate."
However, the longer the use and the
higher the dosage, the harder it is to
stop using them. And "going cold tur-key"
is risky. Here, the findings of a
Philadelphia study were noted.
"With the abrupt discontinuation of
use by about 100 patients, about 11
patients reported some type of
withdrawal reaction."
Some experienced gastrointestinal
symptoms, lethargy, tremulousness,
weakness, insomnia, anxiety and an
occasional heightened sensitivity to
light and sound. These reactions
started within two days, peaked at two
weeks, and tapered off during the
third week without any further treat-ment.
"On very high dosages of the medi-cation
for long periods of time, how-ever,
there is a risk of moderate to
severe withdrawal reactions if the
patient suddenly stops taking the
drug."
Depression, aggravation of psy-choses,
agitation, insomnia, loss of
appetite, and nausea appeared be-tween
two and eight days following
abrupt withdrawal. Two patients had
seizures at seven and eight days after
stopping the drugs.
"Therefore, it is quite clear that the
higher the dosage and the longer the
use, the greater the risk of moderate
to severe withdrawal reactions.
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