Victoria Ratliff, the wife of the wealthy funder at HBO’s “The White Lotus” season, has a problem: she keeps the pills.
And the medicine of her choice, the drug against anxiety Lorazepam, left her a little loopy.
In the show, which follows visitors who vacation in a fantastic resort, Victoria mates her medicine with wine, which leads her to go to the table. She sometimes tightens her words.
When she observes that her pill supply is mysteriously reduced, she asks her children if they steal them.
“You don’t have enough Lorazepam to spend a week in a wellness spa?” Her daughter, Piper, asks.
“White Lotus” is not the only show that recently presents these medicines. The new Max “The Pitt” series, which takes place in an emergency section, includes a history line for a benzodiazepine called librium.
This is not a Hollywood case that receives dramatic freedoms. Benzodiazepines such as Lorazepam and Chlorosepaxi are well known because they have the ability to be particularly addictive. They can also come with difficult – sometimes deadly – symptoms of withdrawal.
The abuse of benzodiazepine’s characters is not uncommon, said Dr. Ian C. Neel, a UC San Diego Health. “We definitely see that very much in real life as well.”
And in recent years, he added, studies have shown that it is a bigger problem than doctors initially realized.
A widely abusive collection of drugs
Medicines, often called benzo or downers, are commonly used to treat stress, panic attacks and sleep disorders such as restless foot syndrome. But they can also be used for other reasons, such as to help people manage alcohol.
Other common benzodiazepines include diazepam (Valium), Klonopin and alprazolam (xanax).
Unlike antidepressants, which may take weeks to start working, most benzodiazepines can provide relief within minutes – which can comfort nerve brochures and others that need rapid stress relief for a particular situation. But if taken for longer periods, patients can develop tolerance within a few weeks of the start of the drug, even when they use it as defined, Dr. Ludmila de Faria said, President of the Council of American Psychiatric Union for Women’s Mental Health.
“There people get into the problem,” he added and start taking more than the drug. “The same dose will no longer get rid of the symptoms.”
In addition, drugs such as Clonazepam and Diazepam last longer in the body than short -acting drugs such as alprazolam. “People don’t realize it,” he said. “So they take multiple doses and accumulate”, which can lead to people “walking around as if they had some drinks in them.”
All of these factors in combination have led to the abuse of drugs. In 2019, the latest available data, pharmacies distribute about 92 million benzodiazepine recipes, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. Research suggests that drugs are more often prescribed in adults between the ages of 50 and 64 years.
Delirium, falls and other risks
In 2020, the FDA informed the information provided to prescription and patients on all benzodiazepines to warn of physical dependence, withdrawal reactions, abuse, abuse and addiction.
Ideally, these risks are explained to a patient before taking their first pill. But this is not always the case. And even if a patient receives the right counseling, “it’s one thing to say and then another thing he is experiencing,” Dr. Neel said.
He said that he often sees patients who already take a cocktail of other drugs and do not understand the dangers of a combination of benzodiazepines, which are depressing, with other drugs that also have statutes, such as sleep or benadryl.
And if you are going to drink alcohol or use hemp, it is best not to have benzodiazepine on your system. When people combine substances that have a repressive effect, they can even interfere with breathing.
The geriatric population facing Dr. Neel is particularly vulnerable because benzodiazepines are metabolized differently as we age, he added, prolonged to the body for longer. As a result, the elderly who take them can be more prone to falls or traffic accidents. Medicines can also cause delirium in patients with dementia.
But drugs may be dangerous for people of any age, so they are usually prescribed for a short period of time – usually four weeks or less – and are considered a last resort for the treatment of a chronic condition, Dr. Neel said.
A thin procedure of withdrawal
A 2019 study found that almost 20 percent of people who take their benzodiapine abuse. If one develops a dependency, the interruption can be difficult, partly due to severe symptoms of withdrawal.
These symptoms may include sleep disorders, irritability, sweating, heart rate, increased blood pressure and stomach problems, such as dry lift.
The drug should be reduced in a gentle way, ideally under the supervision of a doctor.
It is “almost as if a plane is landing where there is a gradual descent,” said Dr. John Torous, a psychiatrist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
While this is the case, he added, the patient may try different methods to get more sleep and talk to a therapist for strategies to help manage stress.
In addition, there are other medicines such as clonidine, which can be used to treat stress and also help with any symptoms of withdrawal.
After all, it is always more effective to try to identify and deal with the root cause of stress, Dr. Torory added. “Benzers give you rapid relief to the brain, but then one day is worn out – this rapid relief is gone.”
