A Researcher In London Spent Years Documenting

What Long Term Benzodiazepine Use

Did To The Human Brain

His Findings Were Uncomfortable

The Industry Response Was To Make The Findings Difficult To Act On

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Professor Malcolm Lader Was A Psychopharmacologist At The Institute Of Psychiatry In London

By The Late 1970s, He Had Been Treating Patients On Long Term Benzodiazepines For Years

What He Was Observing Did Not Match What The Manufacturers Were Saying

Patients Were Not Getting Better

Many Were Getting Worse

Cognitive Impairment

Memory Problems

Emotional Blunting

Symptoms That Did Not Disappear When The Drug Was Stopped

In 1980, Lader Produced Brain Scan Evidence Suggesting That Long Term Benzodiazepine Use Was Associated With Cortical Atrophy

Shrinkage Of Brain Tissue

In Patients Who Had Been Taking Therapeutic Doses For Years

Not Abusers

Patients

The Research Was Contested By The Manufacturers

It Was Inconvenient Enough To Be Treated As Inconclusive

In 1988, The Committee On Safety Of Medicines In The United Kingdom Issued A Formal Statement

Benzodiazepines Should Only Be Prescribed For Short Term Use

A Maximum Of Two To Four Weeks

The Statement Acknowledged That Physical And Psychological

Dependence Could Develop

Even At Therapeutic Doses

Even In Patients Without A History Of Substance Misuse

This Was Not A Fringe Opinion

This Was The Official Regulatory Position Of The British Medical Establishment

That Guideline Is Still In Place Today

Thirty Seven Years Later

Millions Of People Are Still Being Prescribed Benzos For Months And Years

In The Late 1980s And Early 1990s

Thousands Of British Patients Who Had Developed Dependence On Prescribed Benzodiazepines

Brought Legal Action Against The Manufacturers

It Was The Largest Class Action In UK Legal History At The Time

More Than Seventeen Thousand Claimants

They Argued That The Manufacturers

Had Known About The Dependence Risk Earlier Than They Had Disclosed

That Doctors Had Been Misled

That Patients Had Been Harmed

In 1994, Legal Aid Funding For The Cases Was Withdrawn

Without Public Funding, Most Claimants Could Not Continue

The Cases Collapsed

No Compensation Was Paid

No Manufacturer Was Found Liable

The Evidence That Had Been gathered In Preparation For Trial Was Never Heard

While The British Were Having Their Reckoning

The American Regulatory Response Was Different

The FDA Did Not Issue Equivalent Restrictions

Prescribing Culture Did Not Shift In The Same Way

The Drugs That Were Being Scrutinized In The UK Were Being Prescribed At Increasing Rates In The US

The Pharmaceutical Industry Had Different Political Relationships In Different Countries

The Outcome For Patients Reflected That

The Two To Four Week Maximum Has Been The Official Medical Guideline

In Most Western Countries For Nearly Four Decades

It Is Taught In Medical Schools

It Is Written Into Prescribing Guidelines

In Practice, Surveys Of Prescribing Patterns Consistently Show That

A Significant Portion Of Benzodiazepine Prescriptions Are Written For Durations

Far Beyond What The Guidelines Recommend

The Gap Between What Medicine Knows And What Medicine Does

Is Where Most Of The Damage Lives