Episode 3 World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day: Raising Global Understanding
Channel: Mad in America
Date: 05/08/2017

This week, we have a special episode to join in with the events being held for World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day.

World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day seeks to raise global awareness of iatrogenic benzodiazepine dependence, the dangers of its adverse effects and the associated withdrawal syndrome, which can last for years.

To give some context around the issues with Benzodiazepines, we have three interviews in this episode.

Firstly we talk to Professor Malcolm Lader who is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry from Kings College London and is globally recognised as an expert on Benzodiazepines. Following that we talk with Jocelyn Pedersen. Jocelyn is a US based campaigner who shares her own experiences with Benzodiazepines and talks also about her views of the medical response to the issues of dependance and iatrogenic harm.

 Finally, we talk to Barry Haslam. Barry is a veteran UK campaigner who shares his experiences and also what we should be doing to help those dependant or damaged from use of these medications. Barry has been instrumental in raising awareness and taking action for last 30 years and is well known in political and medical circles.

 Interview 1, Professor Malcolm Lader

 In this interview we discuss:

Professor Lader’s training in medicine and how he specialised in psychopharmacology and psychiatry

That he went on to become involved in research, particularly around tranquilliser dependance and adverse effects

How Benzodiazepines were created in the 1950s, replacing Barbiturates because they were generally safer in overdose

That the first Benzodiazepine created was Librium (Chlordiazepoxide) soon followed by Valium (Diazepam)

That for a time, Valium was the most widely prescribed drug on the planet

That the advantages are that Benzodiazepines are relatively safe in overdose but they can result in dependance (likely a 1 in three chance) at therapeutic doses

That by 1975, Professor Lader’s Addiction Research Unit at the Maudsley hospital in London were becoming increasingly concerned by the number of people who were being referred to them for specialist help

How this led to Professor Lader’s famous quote on a BBC Radio 4 interview that it was “easier to withdraw people from Heroin than from Benzodiazepines”

That Opioid withdrawal caused an acute, very unpleasant withdrawal experience but Benzodiazepines caused a protracted withdrawal that was actually more difficult for many people to deal with

How they were left with patients who had successfully withdrawn from Opioids like Heroin but were still having trouble with the Benzodiazepines like Ativan

How the  British Medical Association have only recently become engaged in the issues of dependance and withdrawal to give advice to their members (General Practitioners)

That the regulators don’t have sufficient influence to get doctors to prescribe Benzodiazepines in a more responsible way

That much of the long term use of psychiatric medications comes down to lack of monitoring of patients by doctors

That there have been cases where long term prescribing of Benzodiazepines has been seen to be negligent on the doctors part and that this has led to some out of court settlements

That the treatment of dependance is not simple or straight forward so it is much better to educate GPs upfront to intervene before people have the chance to become dependant

How we are now repeating some of the same mistakes made with Benzodiazepine prescribing with Opioid analgesics and antidepressants too

That the increase in prescribing of psychiatric drugs is partly down to greater recognition of mental health difficulties but also that we do not have enough people trained in non pharmacological interventions

That Pharmacists can play a pivotal role in monitoring, advising and supporting patients

How Professor Lader became involved in the educational resource the Lader-Ashton organisation

That Professor Lader welcomes this second Benzodiazepine Awareness Day because knowledge and education about the related issues is important

That people who are currently taking a Benzodiazepine should make themselves aware of the risks and benefits and talk to their prescriber if they are concerned

The concerns around the lack of research in this area and that we need ring fenced money to better understand how best to help and support dependant patients

That the prediction of the efficacy of psychiatric drugs from biochemistry to animal experiments to human treatment is very poor, so the Pharmaceutical industry is losing interest in psychotropic drugs

That psychiatric drugs largely offer symptomatic relief and so their usefulness is limited and we also need to focus on the safety issues

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