killagorilla187
26-10-2007, 18:03
How toxic are benzos to a humans liver?
Compared to alcohol?
Benzodiazepines are physically very non-toxic drugs. They simply don't cause liver damage in the way that alcohol does.
If the liver is already damaged then there can be a problem with reduced benzodiazepine clearance and over sedation, and they should be avoided in liver failure.
less toxic than alcohol but often more addictive partly because there is no self limiting factor (as with ethanol, hangovers, health effects etc). Benzo's are definately not the angelic compounds the medical profession once thought they were.
*Do NOT link to that website!* [Sorry]
Persistence of cognitive effects after withdrawal from long-term benzodiazepine use: a meta-analysis
Melinda J. Barker, Kenneth M. Greenwood, Martin Jackson, Simon F. Crowe
School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Vic. 3086, Australia
Despite the widespread prescribing of benzodiazepines, uncertainty still surrounds the potential for
cognitive impairment following their long-term use. Furthermore, the degree of recovery that may
take place after withdrawal or the level of residual impairment, if any, that is maintained in long-term
benzodiazepine users is also unclear. The current paper employed meta-analytic techniques to address
two questions: (1) Does the cognitive function of long-term benzodiazepine users improve following
withdrawal? (2) Are previous long-term benzodiazepine users still impaired at follow-up compared to
controls or normative data? Results of the meta-analyses indicated that long-term benzodiazepine users
do show recovery of function in many areas after withdrawal. However, there remains a significant
impairment in most areas of cognition in comparison to controls or normative data. The findings of this
study highlight the problems associated with long-term benzodiazepine therapy and suggest that previous
benzodiazepine users would be likely to experience the benefit of improved cognitive functioning
after withdrawal. However, the reviewed data did not support full restitution of function, at least in the
first 6 months following cessation and suggest that there may be some permanent deficits or deficits
that take longer than 6 months to completely recover.
Still switching chronic alcoholics to benzodiazepines is often the preffered option. Especially if they are 24/7 drinkers as they risk developing Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome through malnutrition and more importantly malabsorption of thiamine (alcohol prevents absorption).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernicke-Korsakoff_syndrome
(It's quite a tragic syndrome, pyschosis which when triggered is in most cases irreversible and produces a memory like a goldfish - always wondering around forgetting what they were planning on doing 8 seconds ago)
In severe cases of repeated chronic alcoholism the risk/benefit of alcohol or benzodiazepines definately favours the benzodiazepine option.