Scientists find clue to anxiety drug addiction

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems in the US. According to the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), just over 18 percent, or about 40 million American adults aged 18 and older, have an anxiety disorder. The most common medical treatment for this disorder is a class of prescription anti-anxiety medications called benzodiazepines, such as Ativan, Xanax and Valium. Many people become addicted to these drugs, but researchers did not understand why until very recently. In the February 2010 edition of the Nature journal, researchers from Switzerland and the United States reported how anti-anxiety drugs use the same "reward pathways" in the brain as heroin and cannabis. Dopamine is the “feel good” neurotransmitter and benzodiazepine drugs increase its activation. Another recent study in Denmark found that people with higher levels of dopamine in the brain tend to be more prone to addictive behavior, which may explain why some people fall into addiction more easily than others, whether the substance of choice is a prescription drug or an illicit drug. If you are a person born with high density of dopamine receptors, you may find it much easier to get addicted to anti-anxiety drugs, pain pills, alcohol, or marijuana. Physicians are advised to prescribe benzodiazepines for short-term use only. When people take them on regular basis for a long term, they are prone to develop chronic cognitive impairment. Because addiction to benzodiazepines is common, stopping them abruptly can result in a withdrawal syndrome similar to what is seen with alcohol withdrawal, including sweating, agitation, confusion, hallucinations and even seizures. My office offers an alternative to addictive anti-anxiety prescription medications. I combine several approaches, including teaching effective stress management tools, neurofeedback, the Alpha-Stim SCS, and nutraceuticals.