Reader Questions Benzo Withdrawal and Inhaler Abuse

(With regard for The Rules for Treating Benzodiazepine Withdrawal) I practice in a jail on the East Coast. I totally agree that Benzo’s must be used, but I can’t find anything in the literature concerning length of treatment to avoid life-threatening vs. annoying symptoms. The months-long tapers are not well accepted by either Correctional Healthcare companies or Correctional institutions. Most providers here go with a week of tapering diazepam. I usually go with 10-14 days. I would like to try your general formula of choosing the dose of diazepam, then tapering down every 4-6 days. Do you have any literature or expert panel opinion on how long to taper in order to avoid life-threatening consequences? Do you see any benefit to using other meds after the benzo taper simply to decrease annoying symptoms from withdrawal?  Steven Wilbraham MD

Thanks for the question, Dr. Wilbraham!  Yes, the psychiatry literature talks about tapering benzodiazepines very gradually over many months or even years. But what they are doing is different than what we are doing.  They are treating benzodiazepine addiction and we are treating withdrawal with a detoxification protocol.  It is analogous to the difference between treating opiate addiction in a methadone clinic (which also can last for months or years) versus what we do when we treat opiate withdrawal for at most a couple of weeks. 

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The Rules for Treating Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

Patients are dying in correctional facilities from benzodiazepine withdrawal!  This is not just a theoretical observation; this really is happening. This fact bothers me since benzo withdrawal deaths are preventable.  Benzodiazepine withdrawal is easy to treat!  It is certainly easier to treat benzo withdrawal than the other two potentially deadly withdrawal states, alcohol and opioids.   By far, the most common cause of benzodiazepine deaths is, of course, not treating it!    

So, is your facility at risk to have a patient die of benzodiazepine withdrawal?  To find out, compare your policies to the following Rules for the Treatment of Benzodiazepine Withdrawal.             

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Reader Question: Xanax Withdrawal

I am looking for a withdrawal protocol for benzos. I have patients that have been on Xanax 2mg for 3-5 years and now I need to detox them. We all know how difficult this is with people in the community let alone in the correctional setting. PLEASE HELP !!!!
Thank You, Doris

Well, Doris, you have come to the right place! I, and many other JailMedicine readers, are happy to share our strategies for dealing with benzodiazepine withdrawal. And this is a common dilemma in county jails. Believe it or not, Xanax is the single most-prescribed psychiatric drug in the United States. My experience is that Xanax is highly addictive and yet handed out like candy by some community practitioners. Some community prescribers I have talked to do not even realize that Xanax is addictive!  Strange but true.GABA-Production Continue reading