Benzos in 30% of NYC’s Overdose Deaths; ER Visits Soar
The NYC Department of Health reports that 30% of the city's 2009 overdose deaths were tied to benzodiazepines, and that benzo-related emergency room visits...
5,012 Englishwomen Poisoned Last Year by Benzos, 8,501 by SSRIs
Addiction Today reports "Attention on illicit drugs has deflected focus from the gigantic scale of harms by legal, prescribed drugs. We give you the...
Vegas Shooter was Reportedly Prescribed Anti-Anxiety Meds
From the New York Post: Mass murderer Stephen Paddock was reportedly prescribed anti-anxiety medication this past summer. The gunman purchased 50 10-milligram tablets of Valium...
RxISK Adds Prescription Withdrawal Resource
This week the drug monitoring and patients' rights website, RxISK, launched the Centre for Medication Withdrawal, a page dedicated to establishing what causes dependence and how to treat it.
Film Highlights Harm From Benzo Overuse
From The Right Care Alliance: Documentary filmmaker and benzodiazepine survivor Holly Hardman is currently working on a film called As Prescribed, which will document the stories...
How Online Forums Offered ‘Lifeline’ for Sufferers
From The Times: In an age in which benzodiazepine dependence is increasingly becoming a global problem, online forums serve as a lifeline for numerous benzodiazepine...
“Drug Overdoses Propel Rise in Mortality Rates of Young Whites”
“The rising death rates for those young white adults, ages 25 to 34, make them the first generation since the Vietnam War years of the mid-1960s to experience higher death rates in early adulthood than the generation that preceded it,” the ‘Times reports.
“Barry Takes Center Stage for World Benzo Day Launch”
Mad In America contributor and prescription drug addiction reformer Barry Haslam has “taken his fight to the world stage by helping create an international...
A Text Therapy App Plans to Start Prescribing Drugs to Users
From Business Insider: Talkspace, a text message-based therapy platform, is bringing on a team of psychiatrists to prescribe medications to patients. The app is also...
Major National Newspaper Looking for Drug Withdrawal Stories
From the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry: A major national newspaper is looking for people in the UK willing to share recent stories of negative effects...
“Focus on Opioids May Obscure Other Drug Issues”
“The war against the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts may be pushing another potential public health crisis into the shadows,” the Metro West Daily News...
“Survivors Push for Withdrawal Hotline and Change”
“Two Scots whose lives have been ravaged by prescription drugs are battling for recognition of the devastating withdrawal issues as well as proper support for victims,”...
Petition to Give Better Support for Those on Antidepressants
From Daily Express: A patient advocacy group has launched a petition at the Scottish Parliament requesting improved support services for people withdrawing from antidepressants. People from...
“West Virginia Allows Painkiller Addicts to Sue Prescribing Doctors”
“CBS News went to West Virginia, a state that is attempting a drastic solution: allowing addicts to sue the doctors who got them hooked.”
“World Benzo Awareness Day, First Step To End Global Dependency Woes”
“In a bid to raise awareness towards the global epidemic of abuse on Benzodiazepine or ‘benzos’ abuse, a global campaign dubbed as World Benzo Awareness...
More Dangerous Than Opioids – Benzo Overprescription
From The Lown Institute: Opioids aren't the only drug being dangerously overprescribed. The overprescription of benzodiazepines, a psychoactive drug with potentially excruciating side effects and...
“FDA Forced to Release Adverse Event Reports on Psychiatric Drugs”
Following a lawsuit brought by Andrew Thibault of Parents Against Pharmaceutical Abuse (PAPA), the FDA has produced adverse event and severe adverse event reports...
“Opioids and Benzos Not a Good Combination, Health Directors Say”
“Health Commissioner Leana Wen will join other health directors across the country today in asking the federal government to require a ‘black box warning’...
Tiger Woods Told Officers During Arrest He had Taken Xanax
From STAT: Last month, when Tiger Woods was arrested for driving under the influence, he told officers that he had taken prescription medications including opioid...
We Need Ecstasy and Cocaine in Place of Prozac and Xanax
From Aeon: While psychiatric drugs are often ineffective and can have serious side effects, there are many psychedelics and other illicit substances that have proven...
Doctors Rarely Warn about Benzo Withdrawal
The Boston Globe interviews people who became ever more severely dependent on sedating benzodiazepines without realizing it, because as they tried to stop taking...
A Response to Columnist Dr. Greg Smith at the Aiken Standard
In this five-part series for the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition, Nicole L. critiques a recent article by Dr. Greg Smith that was highly laudatory of benzodiazepines. Click...
We Need to Encourage People to Make Advance Directives
In this piece for STAT, Jennifer Adaeze Okwerekwu describes the value of psychiatric advance directives for those at risk of experiencing an emotional crisis.
"'It’s something that can...
Dr. Andrew Weil Says We’re Taking Too Many Medicines
From The New York Times: According to Dr. Andrew Weil, who is best known for popularizing the concept of integrative medicine, the problem of overmedication...
One Woman’s Fight to Overcome Prescription Drug Addiction
Christine Cobb speaks to the Lancaster Guardian about how she became addicted to prescription drugs and her horrific experience with benzodiazepine and SSRI withdrawal.
"'...the doctor...
