The Benzodiazepine Evidence
July 15, 2023 by Doctor Vernon Coleman
I have a filing cabinet which is packed with scientific papers and medical journal articles showing the dangers of the benzodiazepines. Many of these articles, which have been published in the 1970s and the 1980s, describe specific problems associated with the drugs. There were, for example, papers published years ago showing that the benzodiazepines can cause anxiety, can cause depression, can cause sleeplessness, can make patients become aggressive, can cause foetal abnormalities when taken by pregnant women, can make patients so drowsy that they are unsafe to drive motor cars or operate machinery and can cause a huge number of uncomfortable, unpleasant or dangerous side effects. I have long been a campaigner against tobacco but when I wrote Life Without Tranquillisers in the 1980s I wrote that: ‘I think that doctors would serve some patients better if they gave them prescriptions for filter cigarettes rather than benzodiazepines’. The book became a Sunday Times bestseller within days.
There isn't room here to describe all the side effects and problems associated with the benzodiazepines. So I am going to concentrate on the evidence showing that these drugs are addictive.
Remember, all the quotes which follow are taken from magazines and popular medical newspapers which are widely read by doctors.
The technical and specialist journals have for years been full of articles about the benzodiazepines. Psychiatrists, therefore, have absolutely no excuse for not knowing about the dangers associated with these drugs. Back in 1975, for example, the International Journal of the Addictions carried a major paper entitled ‘Misuse and Abuse of Diazepam: An increasingly Common Medical Problem.
Any psychiatrist or hospital specialist who has not been aware of this hazard is guilty of gross incompetence and dangerous ignorance.
Here, now, is the evidence that has been available to all general practitioners. The journals from which the quotes are taken are named underneath each quotation.
Since habitual use is common it is wise to prescribe these drugs with care to review repeatedly the prescription of a benzodiazepine once it has been given for more than a few weeks. If intolerance to the effects of the drug appears to be developing, as shown by an increase in dosage, the dose should be reduced and the drug stopped as quickly as possible.
Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin 1979
Rebound insomnia, a newly defined clinical entity characterised by a marked worsening of sleep, has been found to occur as a result of abrupt withdrawal of even a single nightly dose of certain benzodiazepine hypnotic drugs, regardless of the duration of use.
Modern Medicine 1979
The Committee on the Review of Medicines concludes that on published evidence the dependence potential of benzodiazepines is low, but that withdrawal symptoms are liable to occur between one and ten days after treatment is stopped, usually after higher doses have been given for a long time...the Committee has to some extent fudged the issue of benzodiazepine dependence...if the CRM believes that benzodiazepines produce dependence, it should have said so more clearly...long term use should be avoided where possible because of the unwanted effects and the risk of dependence. If a benzodiazepine is being taken continuously and is to be withdrawn, this should be done gradually to minimise withdrawal symptoms.
Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, 1980
More recently, evidence has been accumulating that a specific physical withdrawal syndrome may follow the prolonged use of benzodiazepines even when given in normal therapeutic doses...Our findings, like those of other recent reports, show that patients taking benzodiazepines in therapeutic doses risk developing some form of dependence in that a mild to moderately severe syndrome is commonly experienced upon stopping long term benzodiazepine treatment. The demonstration of withdrawal problems in patients on normal, therapeutic doses and the psychological impairment associated with chronic sedative ingestion argues against regular daily medication for chronic anxiety other than of severe degree.
Psychiatry in Practice, 1982
Reaction to benzodiazepine withdrawal was first noticed in 1961. Since then sporadic reports have drawn attention to a wide range of physical and emotional symptoms which can accompany the withdrawal of benzodiazepines...the Committee on Safety of Medicines advises that benzodiazepines should be prescribed for short periods only and that withdrawal symptoms, following administration, can be avoided by withdrawing medication slowly.
Modern Medicine, 1982
Recently a number of studies both in Britain and the USA have demonstrated that a true physical withdrawal syndrome exists on stopping benzodiazepines. This withdrawal syndrome is characterised by severe anxiety, often worse than the original symptoms for which the medication was prescribed. The symptoms become maximal about five days after medication is stopped and gradually resolve in about two weeks...Benzodiazepines are the most commonly prescribed drugs. They are effective in the treatment of anxiety and allied states. Not surprisingly, they can produce both physical and psychological dependence. Physical dependence can be hard to treat and can occasionally result in severe withdrawal symptoms. Its prevention and management are primarily the province of the community psychiatrist - the general practitioner.
Update, 1982
...no one would doubt that the benzodiazepines are valuable drugs in the short term management of acute anxiety reactions and sleep disturbance, as well as in other specific indications. What is disturbing is their prolonged use. In many cases there seems to be little clinical justification for this. It simply creates addicts from whom subsequent withdrawal is extremely difficult. Regrettably, doctors, both as a result of their prescribing habits as well as their willingness to allow themselves to be manipulated by ‘hooked’ patients are very much to blame. In this context the repeat prescription, a mechanism which often allows us to avoid confrontation with chronically emotionally disturbed patients, has much to answer for. Nor are hospitals blameless. The indiscriminate nightly distribution of sleeping tablets starts many a patient on the rocky road to addiction.
Psychiatry in Practice, 1982
Benzodiazepines have a well-established role in conditions such as status epilepticus, but it is emerging that there are distinct disadvantages in using them for symptoms such as anxiety or depression. Most hypnotics tend to lose their sleep promoting properties within 14 days of continuous use, and there is no evidence that they are effective in the treatment of anxiety after four months' continuous use...Patients taking benzodiazepines for four months or more may develop a psychological and physical withdrawal syndrome on stopping them.
Modern Medicine, 1982
It is increasingly being realised that patients can become dependent (both in a psychological and a physical sense) on benzodiazepines. There is also evidence to suggest that the chances of a patient who starts on a course of psychotropic drug treatment becoming a long term consumer are increasing. There is no doubt that benzodiazepines and other mild tranquillisers afford considerable short term symptomatic relief from anxiety. There is, however, little or no evidence that they are beneficial in the long term. Patients who are started on these drugs should be kept under regular review so as to minimise the chances of patients becoming long term consumers by default.
Medical Digest, 1983
In recent years...the pendulum of approval has swung dramatically against the benzodiazepines...several investigations have shown quite unequivocally that benzodiazepines may produce pharmacological dependence in therapeutic dosage...The best management for benzodiazepine dependence is far from clear. Treatment should not be stopped abruptly, for this is more likely to lead to serious withdrawal symptoms including epileptic seizures...In terms of public policy, now that benzodiazepines have been shown to cause drug dependence should their use be more closely controlled - or even banned?
British Medical Journal, 1984
Irresponsible prescribing by doctors often leads to psychotropic drug addiction, a specialist has claimed. Professor Griffith Edwards...told the meeting: ‘When the media give us yet another heading on ‘Britain overrun by drugs’ you can wager that they are referring to illicit drugs such as heroin. Too easily lost from sight, though, is a problem which seldom makes the front page - the social significance of illicit prescribing of mind-acting drugs.’ Professor Edwards said benzodiazepines was one example of a drug which was overprescribed. And the central question was why this boom had occurred.
Doctor, 1984
Doctors were urged last week to be more cautious in their prescribing of benzodiazepines because of the huge withdrawal problems in a significant number of patients...Certain benzodiazepines pose more dependency and tolerance problems than others. Lorazepam (Ativan) and triazolam (Halcion) were particularly likely to induce dependence.
GP, 1984
A report by MIND, the National Association for Mental Health, stating that benzodiazepine drugs are being prescribed by GPs for periods that far exceed their usefulness, was described as fair comment by a professor of general practice.
Pulse, 1984
Long term use of minor tranquillisers can lead to physical dependence, with the development of a withdrawal reaction if the drug is stopped suddenly...As awareness of this fact increases, so concern is growing amongst doctors and patients alike.
Medical News, 1984
Large numbers of people take benzodiazepines to control anxiety and often continue to do so for months or years, despite the recommendation of the Committee on the Review of Medicines that they should be prescribed only for short term use.
Medical Digest, 1983
...these findings show very clearly that benzodiazepine withdrawal is a severe illness. The patients were usually frightened, often in intense pain, and genuinely prostrated. The severity and duration of the illness are easily underestimated by medical and nursing staff, who tend to dismiss the symptoms as ‘neurotic’. In fact, through no fault of their own, the patients suffer considerable physical as well as mental distress.
British Medical Journal, 1984
Benzodiazepine withdrawal seems to induce a minor transient rebound anxiety state in addition to minor physical symptoms, which might deter some patients from discontinuing their medication.
Medical News, 1984
Benzodiazepines have now become the most widely prescribed group of drugs, and their indiscriminate use is a cause for concern. In the UK approximately 14% of adults now receive a benzodiazepine during the course of a year...High doses given for long periods of time will almost invariably cause problems on abrupt withdrawal. Continuous treatment for longer than four months with anxiolytic benzodiazepines carries a significant risk of withdrawal effects.
MIMS Magazine, 1984
Tranquillising drugs are among those most commonly prescribed, and in view of their widespread use the incidence od dependence causes concern...The size of the problem is unknown but one must note the recent finding that normal dose dependence can and does occur frequently, especially in patients taking benzodiazepines for several months or more.
Update, 1985
Repeat prescribing accounts for up to half of all drugs issued. In the survey, which covered three group practices, 30% of all repeat prescriptions were for psychotropics...
Pulse, 1986
GPs may be responding to public pressure against benzodiazepines by taking patients off the drugs too rapidly and without giving adequate support...
GP, 1986
Early experience with benzodiazepines suggested that drug dependence was rare. It has since become clear, however, that dependence occurs readily and quickly in some patients and is not uncommon. Such patients develop a reliance on the drug to maintain psychological comfort and experience withdrawal symptoms if the drug is stopped or the dosage reduced. It has been estimated that about one third of patients taking benzodiazepines for six months become dependent, and some do so after only a few weeks of treatment...Present estimates suggest that perhaps half a million people in the United Kingdom and 2-3 million in the world are now dependent on benzodiazepines...Since dependence takes time to develop, it is best prevented by limiting the duration of benzodiazepine use. Severe withdrawal effects are uncommon if the drugs have been used for less than 2 weeks and it would seem advisable to restrict regular benzodiazepine administration periods to 7-14 days.
Adverse Drug Reaction Bulletin, 1986
Repeat prescribing is to blame for the "enormous" problem of benzodiazepine addiction, warned Dr Brenda Davies, consultant psychiatrist from Ticehurst House Hospital in East Sussex. She said benzodiazepines had become the most commonly prescribed of all drugs. One in five women and one in ten men in the UK used them at some time each year. Of these patients 25% may become dependent after only three months of regular use at the standard dose.
Pulse, 1986
As far back as 1980 the Committee on the Review of Medicines pointed out...that ‘there was little convincing evidence that benzodiazepines were efficacious in the treatment of anxiety after four months' continuous treatment’. Despite this authoritative statement, and widespread corroborating evidence, there are still substantial numbers of patients receiving benzodiazepines for a year or more. Apart from exceptional cases there is no point in continuing to prescribe benzodiazepines for prolonged periods because they do not help the patient. What may arise, however, is a dependence on the drug among some patients. The symptoms they experience on withdrawal can be very similar to the symptoms which brought them to the surgery in the first place.
GP, 1986
There is no doubt that benzodiazepines are effective initially but they should generally be prescribed for no more than a fortnight, and rarely for four weeks.
MIMS Magazine, 1987
Excessive growth in prescriptions for benzodiazepines in the 1970s led to concern over their use. The concern was reinforced by evidence that they were being prescribed for excessively long periods. Subsequent studies have shown that about two fifths of regular users of benzodiazepines develop pharmacological dependence and have withdrawal symptoms when the dosage of their drugs is reduced or treatment is stopped.
British Medical Journal, 1988
At the 28th sitting of Standing Committee A on the ‘Health and Medicines Bill’ at the House of Commons Mrs Edwina Currie, replying to questions about lorazepam said: ‘We have taken action because I have been worried about the problem. Dr Vernon Coleman's articles, to which I refer with approval, raised concern about these important matters, and I sent them on to the appropriate bodies. I do not agree with everything that Dr Coleman says, but much of it is good plain common sense. I always read his column with the greatest interest.
1st March 1988
Passing Observations 189
14TH JULY 2023
The conspirators have successfully pushed up debts all around the world. Global debt has risen by 76% since 2007. If you add government and private sector debt together the total is $300 trillion. And that is 349% of global GDP. Remember: ‘You will own nothing’.
British debt has only once been higher than it is now and that was immediately after the Napoleonic wars. The debt was only conquered after successive governments ran primary surpluses for 90 years. That’s how much trouble we are in.
French youths who are rioting have discovered a practical use for all those unwanted covid facemasks. They use them to provide some protection from CCTV cameras.
The Archbishop of Canterbury should be dumped and sold into slavery. The Church of England needs a better leader. Muffin the Mule would be a better leader than Welby. Actually, why not sack all the bishops and replace them with elected representatives. Or pick new bishops through a lottery system.
If an unwanted hand is placed on any part of my person which I consider out of bounds I will punch the owner of the hand on the nose. Why don’t people do that? Why do they wait decades and then complain?
Why does NATO get so upset about the Russians in the Ukraine but not give a damn about what Israel is doing in Palestine?
Members of the CIA (including black or wet special operators) have (allegedly) been operating in the Ukraine. What a shock.
We have adders on our land and since a public footpath passes nearby I had some metal signs made containing the warning ‘Danger Adders’. I thought that the signs might help ensure that walkers took care of their children and dogs. Four signs have so far been stolen. Why do people do that?
Two thirds of people in Britain think it is the job of the State to ‘protect most people against most risks’. It isn’t surprising that the State is constantly expanding. During the covid fraud the UK spent just under a quarter of the nation’s annual income handing out free money. There are more regulators than ever. And there are now calls for people who have taken out mortgages they cannot afford to be bailed out by taxpayers. The conspirators and their tame media have done their job well.
When King Charles II had a fit in 1685 doctors put pigeon droppings on his feet. The pigeon droppings were doubtless safer and more effective than many modern drugs. And much safer and more effective than the covid-19 ‘vaccine’.
It seems to me pretty clear that Governors of the Bank of England are either hand-picked for their incompetence or are selected for their willingness to obey the dictates of the conspirators. Mark Carney was a disaster and the current incumbent Andrew Bailey is known as the Plank of England, though that seems a trifle unfair to pieces of wood. Bailey reacted far too slowly to the threat of inflation and now he’s fighting a losing battle and having to raise interest rates almost weekly. The Peter Principle states that executives rise to a job where they will prove to be incompetent. On the other hand, it seems likely that Bailey’s utter incompetence is part of the plan.
Remember: failure is the plan. So failure is a success.
People seem surprised by the fact that banks are closing the accounts of customers who have non-woke opinions. In truth, there is no surprise, of course. The closing of accounts is part of the plan to outlaw anyone who disagrees with the views of the conspirators, the collaborators and the evil bastards who want to take over our world. It is no more of a surprise that the banks are obeying the dictates of the conspirators than it was that the medical profession and the world’s journalists did what they were ordered to do.
There is no evidence that vaccines do not cause autism.
By the age of 65 you will, if you have average sort of bowels, have spent a year of your life in the loo.
Surveys show that the people in the US and the UK and Canada and Australia have less trust in their governments, their media, their big businesses and their NGOs than the people in China.
I’m old fashioned and probably out of date. I like to do the right thing and I believe everyone else should do the right thing too. If you’re not doing the right thing then you’re doing the wrong thing. I believe we all have a responsibility to care about, and for, those who are weak and frightened.
When people cheat and sneak and bully, and forget about respect, freedom and dignity, I become angry and want to fight them. Since I don’t like fighting I have to use words. Standing up to the uncaring bullies, those I think of as the enemies of mankind, isn’t a choice. I can’t help it. And it’s made my life bloody difficult. Since you’re reading this I suspect that you feel the same. There really isn’t an alternative, is there?
Our new car (nouveau rather than neuf) is 66-years-old and over 17.5 feet long. It has no seat belts and the petrol consumption is probably measured in gallons per mile as much as miles per gallon. However, as a welcome bonus, it requires no MOT and we pay no road tax. It is one of the last cars made with a chassis. It’s dignified and sporting and there are matching, built-in mahogany picnic tables in the back. When new it could accelerate from 0 to 60 in 13.1 seconds and cost £6,305.
The queen of Ulster and the 610 ladies of her court used to meet visitors naked from the waist up.
Nineteenth century surgeon Robert Liston removed a patient’s leg in 33 seconds. Unfortunately, he worked so fast that his assistant couldn’t get his hand out of the way quickly enough and he lost three fingers.
Passing Observations 190
15TH JULY 2023
The climate change, re-wilding nutters want all sports to be stopped. They hate the idea of people cutting grass so that they can play golf, cricket, football, etc. And they hate the idea of players and spectators travelling around. It is their intention to stop all travel – except for themselves, of course. They hate traditional farming because it involves tractors and machinery and the use of fossil fuels. I’m serious. These lunatics want to destroy everything in life which is good. We tend to laugh at the climate change psychos for holding such absurd ideas in their tiny heads, and for being so wrong about everything, but they are immensely dangerous people. We must take them seriously. They know that there is no science behind their nonsense and so they won’t debate their claims, of course, so it is up to us, the truth-tellers, to spread the word about their madness. I’m banned from all mainstream media but if everyone reading this wrote a letter, or sent an email, to a newspaper pointing out that the dangerous myth of climate change will result in billions of deaths and utter misery for anyone left behind, we might dent the self-righteous idiocy of the climate change freaks.
Any teacher who tells children that global warming is real is not just deluded and dangerously ignorant, they are also guilty of a crime of unimaginable proportions and unimaginable consequences. This dangerous propaganda is nothing more than an unpleasant branch of science fiction, and is destroying the lives of generations. For real facts about climate change read: Greta’s Homework by Zina Cohen. It’s available as a paperback and an eBook. It’s entertaining as well as massively informative.
According to a website of a charity called Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust’ the term ‘bonus hole’ can be used as an alternative to ‘vagina’. This is, they say, ‘language to use when supporting trans men and/or non-binary people’. I really don’t believe some of the disgraceful, demeaning crap I see these days. But it’s there on their damned website. If you want to pretend to be a real woman, when you are patently not, why wouldn’t you want to have (or pretend to have) what real women have and be happy to call it what everyone else calls it? The people responsible for thinking up what seems to me to be abusive stuff like this are, in my view, deranged and should be locked up somewhere far away and denied access to pen and paper let alone access to computers. The term ‘bonus hole’ is the most sexist phrase I’ve ever heard, and I doubt if I am entirely alone in thinking that. I realise it is illegal to hold un-woke opinions these days, and even more illegal to express them, but the woke have the BBC to keep them happy so they can bugger off.
Idiot gardeners believe that if they don’t cut their grass or weed their borders they will end up with a beautiful, wild garden full of poppies and tulips and foxgloves and snapdragons and violets and cowslips; a melange of colour, throbbing with butterflies and bees and dragonflies, and probably a few little fairies flitting from flower to flower. In reality, if you let your garden go wild you will end up with nothing but nettles, brambles, docks, Japanese knot weed and giant hogweed, all providing home and hiding places for the rats who live off the palatable feasts provided by your neighbours’ plastic recycling boxes.
According to the weather forecasters, the weather on July 19th 2053 will be very hot all day with a high of 44 degrees C and a low of 43 degrees C. And the weather forecast for tomorrow? Well, tomorrow will be either wet and dry or dry and wet. Showers with sunny periods. Cloudy with some sunshine. And the temperature tomorrow will probably be somewhere between 5 degrees C and 40 degrees C. ‘Ring us the day after tomorrow and we’ll tell you for sure what tomorrow was like.’
I wish people would stop drooling over the Kennedy standing for President in the US. I don’t think he is on our side. I believe he is one of them. I don’t believe he will save us. I do believe he will betray us.
I would respect the conspirators more if they were honest about their intentions, although I doubt if they, their predecessors or their associates have ever truly understood the meaning of the words ‘truth’ or ‘honesty’. But if they were honest they would fail, of course.
I’ve always enjoyed watching cricket but as it poured with rain today (on another one of the ‘hottest and driest days the world has ever seen’) I remembered that for me the best days of cricket watching were the days when it rained. On my half day off when I was a GP I used to go to watch county cricket at Edgbaston or Worcester and take with me a large golf umbrella, a notebook and a supply of pencils, two or three books, a newspaper, a bag of sandwiches and a flask with coffee. No one knew I was there and mobile phones had not been invented. I would sit under my umbrella, writing a little, reading a little, eating occasionally and watching the rain fall and the grass grow. (This was long before I met Antoinette.) I rarely knew such peace, away from the hustle and bustle of never-ending phone calls. I never said I was normal or sociable. But that’s how it was. And I don’t think I was alone in enjoying my non-cricket in such a way. The cricket they weren’t playing was an excuse for my being there – in the same way that a fisherman will sit by the river, in the rain, and not really care whether he catches a fish or not.
In the early summer of 2023 it became clear that the regionalisation of England which voters rejected when Tony Blair was Prime Minister was being reintroduced, with a new layer of bureaucracy being created in individual counties in order to give permanent power to a few representatives of the New World Order. Remember, you can find all the facts and figures online if you spend a little time asking the right questions.
In future I am (as I am now allowed to do) identifying as a gay, black, disabled, Ukranian woman. This means that those social media sites which have banned me (that’s all of them) are guilty of multiple discriminations. I shall be writing to them, in turn, to inform them that they are guilty of racism, sexism and more.
‘International drug companies, perhaps more than any other group of international companies, have taken advantage of their international nature. For example, a company which has its headquarters in Switzerland may manufacture its product there and then sell tablets to a subsidiary company in Britain where the drug is to be marketed. By charging the British company high prices, the main company in Switzerland can keep most of its profits in Switzerland where the tax penalties are lower.’ – Quote taken from The Medicine Men by Vernon Coleman. First published in 1975 and now reprinted and available through the bookshop on this website.
Over the last decade, the UK has seen a massive increase in spending on health care but, at the same time, a dramatic decrease in the quality of care provided. Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands all spend less than the UK on health care but all have much higher survival rates from strokes, heart attacks and cancers. This is yet more evidence that the NHS is a complete failure and should be abandoned. If the money spent on the NHS were spent on private health care everyone would receive much better care. Why? Because the NHS is an administrative giant which wastes most of the money it is given.
NATO is adding cluster bombs to the depleted uranium shells. Every government politician in every NATO country is now a war criminal.
Does the BMA (the doctors’ trade union) want to destroy England as well as the NHS? It seems to me as though they do. Their absurd strike plans will kick inflation higher if the doctors get the 35% they are demanding. Nearly a million hospital appointments have already been cancelled because of previous strikes. Paying doctors a great deal more money will mean less money for patients and poorer paid staff. The only real winners will be the senior doctors who (on the BMA’s advice) will charge £5,000 a day to stand in for striking juniors. (That’s not a misprint.) It seems to me that young doctors are being used by militants. Those who strike are betraying patients, themselves and their profession. Any doctor who feels the need to strike should resign from the medical profession and do something else for a living.
The BBC has apologised after a news anchor said that ‘Israeli forces are happy to kill children’. Speaking to former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett about Israel’s military action in Jenin, the anchor said that ‘young people are being killed’. Bennett replied ‘All the Palestinians that were killed were terrorists in this case’. The presenter said: ‘Terrorists, but children. The Israeli forces are happy to kill children’. I really cannot see why the BBC felt the need to apologise.
Why, again, is NATO fighting a war for Ukraine (who they claim are being attacked by Russians) but not fighting to protect Palestinians (who are being attacked by Israelis? Just curious. Just asking.
The average individual speaks for no more than ten minutes a day.
You can buy a clock which tells you how many hours, minutes and seconds you have left, assuming a lifespan of 76 year. Oh, goody. I must get one.
In 1952, 79 boys aged 16 or under got married and 1,633 girls aged 16 or under got married. How curious that there should be such a huge difference.
In that same year (1952) two bachelors who were over the age of 90 got married for the first time. And, by a pleasant coincidence, two spinsters who were over the age of 90 also got married for the first time. How would you get through the week without me to tell you stuff like this?