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Showing posts with label ativan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ativan. Show all posts

Thursday, 13 January 2011

Benzodiazepine Drugs (Valium, Ativan)

Benzodiazepine drugs have a disastrous history, even though there was a time when Valium was known as a 'wonder drug'.

"The history of benzodiazepines ... is the story of how drug companies gave birth to the scandal through their influence with doctors, the policing of alternative views of the drugs, the controlling of government through ties with the regulator bodies and advisers, and their use of power and money to ensure that legal actions became mired in procedure and ultimately failed, allow the harm to continue unchecked".


So writes Colin Downes-Grainger in his book "Prescription for Injury. The politics of Pharmaceutical Manufacture, Regulation and Prescription". Colin himself is a victim of Benzodiazepine drugs, and his book outlines his struggle to bring their harmful (disease inducing) effects (DIEs) into the open.

Colin was unable to publish the book professionally, and I bought a copy from him directly. It is worth reading for anyone who still believes that the drug companies, or the ConMed-NHS establishment, gives a damn about your health.

However, I now notice that his book is now available on the internet, and that it can be downloaded, free of charge. But can I recommend that you do send a small donation to him.

http://www.benzo.org.uk/pfi.htm

The book demonstrates very clearly the long-term dangers of ConMed drugs, still affecting people decades after they took them, in good faith. It also shows how the medical establishment knows about the dangerousness of drugs, but does nothing to protect patients.

Even now, it would seem, the doctors we trust are still quite willing to prescribe these same, dangerous drugs to patients, long, long after they have been shown to be worthless, and best avoided.

For anyone who has suffered, and is suffering from these drugs, homeopathy can sometimes 'antidote' the harmful DIEs of ConMed drugs, and I would recommend consulting a homeopath about this possibility (see www.a-r-h.org to find a homeopath local to you).

Thursday, 21 October 2010

The shame of Benzodiazepine drugs

We should not be fooled into thinking the dangers of Conventional Medical drugs are short-term. 

No more is this so than the disastrous Benzodiazepine drugs, still being used, apparently, for conditions such as anxiety, insomnia, agitation, seizures, and muscle spasms.  

The Oldham Evening Chronicle (http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/8/news-headlines/48255/doctors-ignored-drugs-warnings) recently entered this long-standing debate, and reminded me of the havoc they have caused, and are still causing those who took them (presumably as 'safe' and 'effective' drug) several decades ago!

An Oldham campaigner, Barry Haslam, who runs the 'Beat the Benzos' group, and was left brain damaged after 10 years addicted to Ativan, has recently uncovered a 30-year-old document revealing doctor's fears about the number of people addicted to benzodiazepine drugs. The medical profession ignored these warnings - presumably the drug companies were too busy counting their profits! Certainly, between 1967 and 1978 the number of long-term repeat prescriptions doubled every year, with 50% of these given without a consultation.

The information he obtained, through a Freedom of Information request showed that the Medical Research Council met in 1981 to debate the addiction, and withdrawal problems of the drug. It is not known yet what happened after this meeting. Presumably not much that would have benefitted patients at that time, or subsequently.

Mr Haslam is reported as saying:

     “It is a scandal that the medical profession ignored a report showing half the people in the study were brain damaged. 


     “The report may have gone into medical journals but nothing seems to have happened after that.

     “It is incredible that this was being discussed 30 years ago. 
Well, nothing much seems to change in the world of ConMed - just the drugs! But it is quite incredible that a drug that has caused for much harm, for so long, is still being given to patients today.