Benzodiazepines in Older Adults

Topics: Addiction | Anxiety | Ashton manual | Beers criteria | Benzodiazepines | Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia | Dementia | Fall risk | Hypnotics | Insomnia | Opioids | Overdose | Silexan | taper | Withdrawal

CGPR: When do you start benzodiazepines in older adults? Dr. Aiken: The best evidence for benzodiazepines in the elderly is in panic disorder, followed by phobias, social anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. Benzodiazepines are also the mainstay of treating catatonia, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, and alcohol withdrawal. Ho

Buspirone: Still Effective After All These Years?

Topics: Anxiety | Anxiety Disorder | Benzodiazepines | Buspirone | GAD | Generalized Anxiety Disorder | Lavender | Medication | Melatonin | Pharmacology | Pregnancy | Psychopharmacology | Silexan

When buspirone was released in 1986, it was advertised as providing “a different kind of calm.” Unfortunately, physicians and their patients weren’t ready to accept the kind of calm that required several weeks to take effect, when punchier, quicker benzos were the standard route to tranquility. Although buspirone is FDA approved for generalized an

Silexan: A Novel Anxiolytic

Topics: Alternative treatments | Anxiety | Anxiety Disorder | Complementary treatments | GAD | Generalized Anxiety Disorder | Lavender | Natural Medications | natural treatments | Novel Medications | Silexan

Patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) often look to medications for help, but GAD is one of the disorders where medications are likely to disappoint. Effect sizes tend to fall in the small range (0.2–0.3) with meds for GAD, including SSRIs, SNRIs, buspirone, and pregabalin (Lyrica). Only the benzodiazepines have an effect in GAD that’s bi