In recent years there’s been a lot of publicity about Australian women using tranquillisers. Public health authorities became so concerned about the number of women reported to be ‘hooked’ on these drugs that the Women and Tranquillisers campaign was launched in 1986 to make health-care workers and the public aware of the problem.
There are two types of tranquillisers: major and minor. Major tranquillisers are used to treat severe psychiatric illness and their use isn’t part of this problem. The concern is with minor tranquillisers of the benzodiazepine group.
Benzodiazepines are used to treat anxiety, nervousness and sleeping problems, to relieve muscle spasm and to prevent fits in some types of epilepsy. The most commonly prescribed for anxiety and sleep disturbances are diazepam (Antenex, Diazemuls, Ducene, Valium), flunitrazepam (Hypnodorm, Rohypnol), lorazepam (Ativan, Emoten), nitrazepam (Alodorm, Mogadon), oxazepam (Alepam, Murelax, Serepax) and temazepam (Euhypnos, Normison, Temaze).
Who uses minor tranquillisers?
During a 12-month period in the mid-1980s more than six million prescriptions for benzodiazepines were written. More than seven out of ten of these prescriptions were for women.
The National Health Survey of 1989-90 interviewed about 5700 Australians about their health. One question was about medications used during the two weeks before the interview. Sleeping medications and tranquillisers came eighth and ninth respectively in order of frequency of use, with overall rates of five per hundred using sleeping medications and about two per hundred using tranquillisers and sedatives. These medications were used more frequently after the age of 45 for both women and men.
Statistics such as these don’t tell us how many women received one prescription and how many received repeated prescriptions. They also don’t tell us what the drugs were prescribed for. Many single prescriptions may have been for overseas travellers, who are often advised to use them to help reduce the effects of jet
lag. Some repeated prescriptions would have been for treatment of conditions other than anxiety and sleep problems.
The figures don’t suggest that there ail huge numbers of women using minor tranquillisers (though the media jumped on the ‘Women and Tranquillisers’ bandwagon with some sensational reports) but it is a worry if anyone is using them inappropriately when other measures would be more effective.
Doctors often prescribe tranquillisers for women who are worried, sad, panicky, unable to sleep well or suffering the symptoms for which no other physical cause can be found. Bull often the anxiety, sleeplessness and physical symptoms are caused by grief, marriage and family problems, unhappiness at work, financial worries, disappointment and having more to do than you can сорe with.
Anxiety can be a healthy response to stress. It’s natural to feel sad and worried if someone near to you is ill or dies, or ill your marriage breaks up, or when топей problems are getting you down. But anxiety can easily get out of hand.
Taking tranquillisers can calm you down and help you sleep better in a crisis. Taking them for a week or so or once in a while can be useful to help you through a rough patch and will do no harm. A few nights of sound sleep may be all you need to muster the energy to do something about whatever is worrying you. But if you need them for every difficulty that crops up or continue to take them for a long time to block out bad feelings, they can have bad effects.
Though they may help you to sleep and make your problems seem a bit more distant, tranquillisers won’t make you happy as long as those problems persist. They can make you feel listless and drained, unable to think straight, sleepy during the day, or feeling as if you have a hangover. These effects can make you less able to tackle your problems.
Benzodiazepine tranquillisers can have more sinister side-effects.
•They can affect your co-ordination and make you feel giddy. This can be disastrous if you drive or operate machinery.
• If you take them with some other drugs, the effects of both can increase dangerously. This applies particularly to alcohol, antihistamines, and other sedatives and sleeping medicines.
• They could affect your foetus if taken during pregnancy. Discuss with your doctor whether the benefits to you outweigh any possible risks to the foetus (which may be the case in epilepsy). They are not recommended during breast-feeding.
• Tolerance can develop. This means that you need bigger doses to get the same calming effect.
• Dependence can develop. This means you can’t do without them. If you stop taking them, especially if you’re taking large doses, you may develop withdrawal symptoms, though these may not start for a week or so. Symptoms include panic attacks, sleep disturbances and general jitteriness – the land of things you took the pills for in the first place, but exaggerated. Withdrawal symptoms are much worse for some people than for others.
Withdrawal symptoms occur because while you’re taking the drugs your body stops producing the natural chemicals it makes to calm you down, and after you stop it takes a while to start making them properly again. In general it’s best to avoid taking pills to blot out feelings. Without them you’re more likely to look for help to deal with your problems. See a counsellor. Doing something positive will make you feel better.
If you’re using tranquillisers regularly and want to stop:
• don’t stop suddenly. This can be dangerous. You need to reduce the dose gradually over a couple of months
• don’t stop without telling your doctor
• speak to someone experienced about a programme for withdrawing. The Drug and Alcohol Information Service in each State will refer you to a counsellor.
*32/31/5*
