lautkita

Benzodiazepine class of drugs known as sedative society is the most popular drug in the world. Since the discovery of its kind Chlordiazepoxide was first named by Leo Sternbach (1908-2005) in 1957 and continued with the discovery of Diazepam, a drug of this class become an amazing phenomenon in the medical community.

Ability as a sedative and hypnotics and then moved into the indications for something else. Currently, there are so many types of benzodiazepine in the market with different brands of both the patent and generic. Several types of well-known are diazepam, alprazolam, Estazolam, nitrazepam, lorazepam, Clobazam. Each type is distinguished by the nature of benzodiazepine pharmacology.

Usefulness benzodiazepine currently primarily to the cause of illness associated with psychiatric and non psychiatric disorders such as insomnia, relieve anxiety, treatment Delirium Tremens, sedation before surgery process, to eliminate the seizures of epilepsy and also in muscle spasm. Its effective immediately and make a lot of doctors use these drugs as well as a mixture for the treatment of patients with gastric disorders which is essentially functional (psychosomatic symptoms) and patients of heart problems that worried.

In 1996 the World Health Organization WHO issued a substance dependence program handles one of which is “Rational Use of benzodiazepine”. Because of it turns out in everyday practice, although most of the benzodiazepine class anesthesia is indicated for patients with psychiatric disorders, in fact most of the benzodiazepine class of drugs that wear these are general practitioners and non-specialist psychiatric doctor.

Research carried out Wood, Katz and Winger as published in the grip of this WHO says 80 percent of the benzodiazepine class of drugs prescribed by general practitioners and is the second most prescribed drug after drug for the heart and blood vessels.

Unfortunately, this use is much that is not rational and violates the rules of the handle-grip that has been decided jointly by the agencies of health and mental health organizations in the world.

Some things that often occur under the use of benzodiazepines are:

1. The use of benzodiazepines for acute cases of mild anxiety. This actually does not require treatment with a benzodiazepine class drug.
2. The use of benzodiazepines for insomnia cases in a long time more than 4 weeks. As a grip, the benzodiazepine class of drugs should not be used for more than 4 weeks.
3. The use of benzodiazepines on the condition that does not require all this treatment, but only in mild cases.
4. Use of benzodiazepines in the elderly are often too high dosage and duration and the selection of species that are less precise. This could pose a risk of falls in the elderly, confusion and respiratory distress.

Another thing to consider in the use of this drug is its potential to experience the effects of dependence, tolerance and withdrawal reactions when not in use anymore. A lot of controversy about what is a dependence in terms of medical. Many experts are saying things and different opinions about this.

Some say that the dependency associated with rising doses (tolerance) so if there is no tolerance means no dependence. But one thing that needs to be underlined is the potential for dependence and withdrawal symptoms on the use of benzodiazepines is associated with duration of use. So the longer use of this class of drugs the greater the potential for experiencing dependency and withdrawal reactions.

So my message is to be wise in using this drug benzodiazepine class of any kind. In Indonesia, I often see one class of benzodiazepine prescribing is alprazolam a very big, either by your GP or a specialist. Not to mention this drug can be obtained free of illegal drug markets or rogue pharmacies.

There have been many victims of this substance dependence is to use these drugs for decades. I myself have patients who come because they want to recover from its dependence on this drug at a dose of 6 milligrams per day (think of the commonly prescribed dose daily alone is usually not more than 1 milligram). I hope, doctors and patients increasingly wise in using this drug.