Prevention
Due to the risk of developing tolerance, dependence, and adverse health effects, such as cognitive impairment, benzodiazepines are indicated for short-term use only - a few weeks, followed by a gradual dose reduction. The Committee on the Review of Medicines (UK)
The Committee on the Review of Medicines carried out a review into benzodiazepines due to significant concerns of tolerance, drug dependence, benzodiazepine withdrawal problems, and other adverse effects and published the results in the British Medical Journal in March 1980. The committee found that benzodiazepines do not have any antidepressant or analgesic properties and are, therefore, unsuitable treatments for conditions such as depression, tension headaches, and dysmenorrhea. Benzodiazepines are also not beneficial in the treatment of psychosis. The committee also recommended against benzodiazepines for use in the treatment of anxiety or insomnia in children.The committee was in agreement with the Institute of Medicine (USA) and the conclusions of a study carried out by the White House Office of Drug Policy and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (USA) that there is little evidence that long-term use of benzodiazepine hypnotics are beneficial in the treatment of insomnia due to the development of tolerance.
A survey of doctors in Senegal found that many doctors feel that their training and knowledge of benzodiazepines is, in general, poor; a study in Dakar found that almost one-fifth of doctors ignored prescribing guidelines regarding short-term use of benzodiazepines, and almost three-quarters of doctors regarded their training and knowledge of benzodiazepines to be inadequate. More training regarding benzodiazepines has been recommended for doctors. Due to the serious concerns of addiction, national governments were recommended to urgently seek to raise knowledge via training about the addictive nature of benzodiazepines and appropriate prescribing of benzodiazepines.A six-year study on 51 Vietnam veterans who had a substance use disorder related mainly to stimulants (11 people), opiates (26 people), or benzodiazepines (14 people) was carried out to assess psychiatric symptoms related to the specific substances. After six years, people who used opiates had little change in psychiatric symptomatology; five of the people who used stimulants developed psychosis, and eight of the people who used benzodiazepine developed depression. Therefore, long-term benzodiazepine use and dependence seems to carry a negative effect on mental health, with a significant risk of causing depression. Benzodiazepines are also sometimes taken intra-nasally when not recommended for use this way by their prescriber.In the elderly, alcohol and benzodiazepines are the most commonly used addictive substances, and the elderly population is more susceptible to benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome and delirium than are younger patients. See also
Long-term effects of benzodiazepines
Alcohol withdrawal syndrome
Long-term effects of alcohol consumption
SSRI discontinuation syndrome
Drug related crime

References
External links

Benzodiazepine dependence at Curlie