Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[XenaLives]

Actually more women are prescribed benzos than men...

Clinical Uses of Benzodiazepines
benzo rehab for women
What are benzodiazepines used for and why are they so popular?
Benzodiazepines are a class of psychoactive drugs. They are prescribed to treat general anxiety disorders (GAD), seizures, anxiety, insomnia and panic attacks. Among the different types of benzodiazepines, alprazolam and clonazepam are often prescribed for panic disorders. Clonazepam, clorazepate, diazepam and lorazepam are often prescribed to treat certain convulsive disorders, like epilepsy. Panic attacks and insomnia are often treated with diazepam.

Recently, they are also used to treat alcohol addictions. Benzodiazepines can lessen the severity and intensity of withdrawal symptoms experienced. This puts less of a strain on an addict’s journey to sobriety.

Unfortunately, all the ailments mentioned above affect women more than men. This means that benzodiazepines are most often prescribed to women than men. In fact, physicians prescribe two to three times more women than men this type of medication.

While effective, benzodiazepines are quite addictive. Due to this reason, the prescribed terms are often for only 2 to 3 months. This is also because the body builds a tolerance for this drug quickly. Over time, patients need larger doses to enjoy the drug’s intended effects.

https://www.denverwomensrecovery.com/benzodiazepine-addiction-abuse-among-women/

This is from 1982:

Send to
Postgrad Med. 1982 Apr;71(4):115-20.
Benzodiazepine prescription to middle-aged women: it is done indiscriminately by family physicians?
Rosser WW.
Abstract
It has been frequently suggested that physicians' indiscriminate prescribing has caused the high level of patient use of benzodiazepines. To determine whether this was true at Ottawa Civic Hospital's Family Medicine Centre, patient charts of women aged 45 to 65-the age-sex group that received the highest number of new prescriptions for diazepam (Valium) or oxazepam (Serax) - were studied. Middle-aged women who received a new prescription for one of these drugs visited the office significantly more often, had more marital problems, and experienced significantly more life crisis situation than a control group of nonrecipients. These results suggest that the high rate of prescribing is related to high levels of reported life stress in middle-aged women. Further studies in other centers are needed to conclusively disprove the popularly held idea that benzodiazepines are indiscriminately prescribed by physicians.

PMID: 6122203

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6122203


Unfortunately - over 65 aren't supposed to be getting benzos but:

Data: Seniors prescribed benzodiazepines most often
By Alison Pereto | August 6, 2018

For most older adults, the risks of benzodiazepines far outweigh the benefits and can even be life-threatening, researchers say. Yet new data from the athenahealth network show patients over 65 receive more prescriptions for these anti-anxiety drugs than any other age group.

https://www.athenahealth.com/insight/data-seniors-prescribed-benzodiazepines-most-often

oids
Benzodiazepines and Opioids
Share
Revised March 2018

More than 30 percent of overdoses involving opioids also involve benzodiazepines, a type of prescription sedative commonly prescribed for anxiety or to help with insomnia. Benzodiazepines (sometimes called "benzos") work to calm or sedate a person, by raising the level of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in the brain. Common benzodiazepines include diazepam (Valium), alprazolam (Xanax), and clonazepam (Klonopin), among others.

Every day, more than 115 Americans die after overdosing on opioids.1 However

https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/benzodiazepines-opioids

Prescriptions higher for women, long a target of tranquilizer ads
Feb. 25, 2014
0 Comments
SHARE
Interactive Timeline

Ads for benzodiazepines targeted women

Related Coverage
Painkillers, tranquilizers an increasingly fatal mix
Prescriptions higher for women, long a target of tranquilizer ads
side effects story list
Side Effects

An occasional series examining doctors, drug companies and conflicts of interest.

Watchdog Update: Cancer drug testimonials tinged with financial interest
Side Effects | Watchdog Report: Opana approved despite history of abuse, limited effectiveness in trials
Side Effects | Watchdog Update: CDC warns of high opioid use by women of childbearing age
Go to section

By John Fauber of the Journal Sentinel and Kristina Fiore of MedPage Today

When it comes to benzodiazepines — tranquilizers that are often used in a deadly combination with opioids — women are prescribed the drugs more than twice as often as men.

In 2013, 61 million benzodiazepine prescriptions were written for women, compared with 29 million for men, according to data provided to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today by IMS Health, a drug market research firm.

That uneven usage may be a legacy of drug company advertising that from the beginning targeted women.

Ads for the tranquilizers, which began appearing in medical journals in the 1950s, portrayed women as needing the drugs for everything from dealing with menopause to handling everyday problems like caring for rowdy children and managing a demanding career.

One ad showed a woman swatting away a moth, declaring the drug is for "when she overreacts to any situation."

A Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today review of the ads found they often made questionable claims, including that the tranquilizers were good for menopause, gastrointestinal problems, ulcers and cardiovascular issues.

For instance, a 1985 Xanax ad in the Journal of the American Medical Association said the drug relieved cardiovascular symptoms.

Yet even today there is no rigorous research indicating that Xanax or other benzodiazepines reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes or heart disease, said James Stein, a professor of medicine and director of preventive cardiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Stein noted that doctors who were in medical school at the time may have seen those ads and formed lasting beliefs that benzodiazepines are beneficial for the heart.

"If you learned early in your career, even subliminally, that these drugs were good for the heart or blood vessels, there's an inclination to reach for them," he said.

Pfizer, which sells Xanax, declined to comment on the ad.

In the 1970s, ads for the benzodiazepine Librium claimedit was beneficial for ulcers. One such ad in the New England Journal of Medicine said the drug was suitable for extended therapy.

However, a search of the medical literature turned up no rigorous research showing — then or now — that Librium cured or reduced the severity of ulcers.

Mitch Roslin, a bariatric surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, said benzodiazepines were used for ulcers based on the theory that type A personalities could benefit by reducing their anxiety. Before the discovery of the H. pylori bacterium, ulcers were thought to be caused by stress.

Tara Iannuccillo, a spokeswoman for Roche USA, the manufacturer of the drug, said the company couldn't provide a source to give historical perspective on the past marketing of its drugs.

Generations Of Addiction
Like her mother, Carolyn Alfieri of California struggled with addiction.

Though she's now been clean six years, Alfieri had a long struggle with opioid painkillers and said her mother was "hooked on Xanax until the day she died."

She said her mother's tranquilizer habit started in the 1960s, when she married and had two children by age 19.

"My mother started with Miltown and moved to Xanax," Alfieri said. "She was like the stereotypical suburban housewife of the 1960s, reaching for 'Mother's Little Helper.'"

That was the title of a 1966 Rolling Stones song about women and tranquilizers. Both Miltown and Valium were popular when the song came out. More recently, Miltown gets referenced in the AMC television series "Mad Men."

Alfieri, 43, said that like her mother she used benzodiazepines with opioids, mainly to diminish symptoms of withdrawal between opioid doses.

Alfieri now works as a resident adviser for a treatment program. She says use of benzodiazepines among addicted women who end up at her center is rampant.

"Middle-age women my age are mixing their prescription pain meds with Valium and Xanax," she said. "It's alarming."

For Mary Kate Legacy, her first benzodiazepine prescription came at the age of 11.

The Massachusetts woman, now 20, was prescribed Ativan for anxiety that was so severe that she could not leave the house to go to school.

Over the years, she was prescribed other benzodiazepines, including Xanax, Valium and Klonopin.

Eventually, Legacy said, she began abusing alcohol and narcotic painkillers.

Ativan "was like a gateway for me," she said.

For the last three years, Legacy said, she has not used any drugs or alcohol.

She now is an advocate for Heroes in Recovery, a grass-roots organization aimed at breaking the stigma of addiction. Heroes was started by Foundations Recovery Network, which operates treatment centers around the country.

http://archive.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/prescriptions-higher-for-women-long-a-target-of-tranquilizer-ads-b99202401z1-247184351.html/