Blog

“Masha’s” father’s life was destroyed because he followed his prescription for Ativan.  She contacted the Benzodiazepine Information
Coalition to share his suicide note, hoping to raise awareness about the dangers of prescribed benzodiazepines.  She states that “My father is dead.  He hanged himself in 2015.  He was taking Ativan for anxiety, as was Chris Cornell (lead singer of Soundgarden).  In light of Cornell’s suicide, also by hanging, I feel a duty to share my father’s suicide note.  If this letter speaks to you, please share it.”    

Arthur Shapiro and colleagues published a randomized, double-blinded study in the 1983 Journal of Psychiatric Research entitled Diazepam: how much better than placebo? assessing the effectiveness of diazepam versus placebo and weekly psychotherapy in the treatment of…

Benzodiazepines come in many different dosages and strengths. One might assume there are enough dosages available to safely taper off of the drug but, for many patients, this is not true. Breaking a pill in…

Psych Congress, as detailed on their website, is “the nation’s largest independent educational conference for mental health professionals”. It is an annual mental health conference which offers “practical education combined with state-of-the-art treatment approaches and…

NOTE: Dr. Kripke is responding to a study by Elisabetta Patorno, Robert J Glynn, Raisa Levin, Moa P Lee, and Krista F Huybrechts entitled Benzodiazepines and risk of all cause mortality in adults: cohort study.  To date,…

We were given permission by Dr. Dodds to publish this review.  It evaluates the literature of suicide risk associated with benzodiazepines. Some highlights of his findings: In the National Comorbidity Study Replication, the use of sleeping pills or…