Why do benzodiazepines cause amnesia

A study on memory and Benzodiazepines found that, when hearing about their blackouts, users perceived their own behavior as inexplicable and inconsistent with their self-conception or normal behavior. Abusing Benzodiazepines can lead to addiction and the user may experience frequent blackouts, which have been described as unpleasant, unpredictable, and embarrassing. Impaired memory increases the likelihood of personal injury, accidents, and violence. People who blackout from Benzodiazepines will sometimes become aggressive, get in trouble with authority, or become victims of crime.

Due to its highly addictive properties, relapsing is quite common and often involves alcohol abuse as well. If you are struggling with Benzodiazepine addiction or blacking out, talk to a healthcare professional about detoxing.

Detoxing from Benzodiazepines can be extremely uncomfortable and in some cases dangerous, but help is out there. A rehabilitation setting can help start the road to recovery. For more information, contact a treatment provider today. After graduation, Ginni worked as an educator in public schools and an art therapist in a behavioral health hospital where she found a passion working with at-risk populations and advocating for social justice and equality.

She is also experienced in translating and interpreting with an emphasis in language justice and creating multilingual spaces. She believes in the importance of ending stigma surrounding mental health and substance abuse while creating more accessible treatment in communities.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading, crafting, and attending music festivals. Mallorca, Spain. View Center. Athens, Greece. Andover, MA. Boston, MA. Wakefield, MA. Quincy, MA. Canton, MA. Ashby, MA. They also are prescribed for mild anxiety. How they can cause memory loss: Although these are molecularly distinct from benzodiazepines see No. The "Z" drugs also can cause amnesia and sometimes trigger dangerous or strange behaviors, such as cooking a meal or driving a car — with no recollection of the event upon awakening.

Alternatives: There are alternative drug and nondrug treatments for insomnia and anxiety, so talk with your health care professional about options. Melatonin, in doses from 3 to 10 mg before bedtime, for instance, sometimes helps to reestablish healthy sleep patterns. Before stopping or reducing the dosage of these sleeping aids, be sure to consult your health care professional.

Sudden withdrawal can cause serious side effects, so a health professional should always monitor the process. Why they are prescribed: These medications are used to relieve symptoms of overactive bladder and reduce episodes of urge incontinence, an urge to urinate so sudden and strong that you often can't get to a bathroom in time.

Another oxybutynin product, Oxytrol for Women, is sold over the counter. How they can cause memory loss: These drugs block the action of acetylcholine, a chemical messenger that mediates all sorts of functions in the body.

In the bladder, anticholinergics prevent involuntary contractions of the muscles that control urine flow. In the brain, they inhibit activity in the memory and learning centers. The risk of memory loss is heightened when the drugs are taken for more than a short time or used with other anticholinergic drugs. A study of oxybutynin ER, for example, found its effect on memory to be comparable to about 10 years of cognitive aging.

Older people are particularly vulnerable to the other adverse effects of anticholinergic drugs, including constipation which, in turn, can cause urinary incontinence , blurred vision, dizziness, anxiety, depression and hallucinations. Alternatives: As a first step, it's important to make sure that you have been properly diagnosed. Check with your doctor or other health professional to see if your urinary incontinence symptoms might stem from another condition such as a bladder infection or another form of incontinence or a medication such as a blood pressure drug, diuretic or muscle relaxant.

Once these are ruled out, I'd recommend trying some simple lifestyle changes, such as cutting back on caffeinated and alcoholic beverages, drinking less before bedtime, and doing Kegel exercises to strengthen the pelvic muscles that help control urination. If these approaches don't work out, consider trying adult diapers, pads or panty liners, which can be purchased just about anywhere.

They can be worn comfortably and invisibly under everyday clothing and virtually eliminate the risk of embarrassing accidents. In my experience, many patients are reluctant to try this approach, but once over the initial hurdle, come to prefer it for security and peace of mind. Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly implied that mirabegron Myrbetriq , which the FDA approved last year for the treatment of overactive bladder, is an anticholinergic drug; in fact, it is in a new class of medications called beta-3 adrenergic agonists and is not expected to cause memory loss seen with anticholinergic medications.

There currently are no data describing the effect of Myrbetriq on cognition. Information contained in the Ask the Pharmacist column by Dr. Armon B. Neel Jr. Any advice or information provided should not be followed in lieu of a personal consultation with a trained medical professional. Why they are prescribed: These medications are used to relieve or prevent allergy symptoms or those of the common cold.

Some antihistamines are also used to prevent motion sickness, nausea, vomiting and dizziness, and to treat anxiety or insomnia. Examples: Brompheniramine Dimetane , carbinoxamine Clistin , chlorpheniramine Chlor-Trimeton , clemastine Tavist , diphenhydramine Benadryl and hydroxyzine Vistaril.

How they can cause memory loss: These medications prescription and over-the-counter inhibit the action of acetylcholine, a chemical messenger that mediates a wide range of functions in the body.

In the brain, they inhibit activity in the memory and learning centers, which can lead to memory loss. Alternatives: Newer-generation antihistamines such as loratadine Claritin and cetirizine Zyrtec are better tolerated by older patients and do not present the same risks to memory and cognition. Ask the Pharmacist is written by Armon B. Atria Books. True or false: Restless leg syndrome RLS is caused by an airborne virus. Iron deficiency is also a risk factor for RLS. You are leaving AARP. Individuals taking benzodiazepines are often unaware of their memory impairment unless it is pointed out to them.

Elderly clients experiencing memory impairment may be embarrassed to mention the problem. Alternatives to prescribing benzodiazepines include antidepressant medications, exercise or psychotherapy. In reality, I was a kid doing my best to get by, growing numb and indifferent to how memory problems were derailing my life. Benzodiazepines, including Xanax, Klonopin and Valium, have come under fire in recent years for their potential for abuse and dependence; in the US, the Food and Drug Administration recently called for expanding warnings on these medications.

For people who take these meds as prescribed, cognitive effects loom large. The potential toll on memory caused by the pandemic-inspired rush on benzodiazepines could be huge. Though the cognitive effects of benzodiazepines are little-known to the public, they are well recognised by psychiatrists. Treatment guidelines, such as those issued by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom for anxiety, now generally recommend treatments including cognitive behavioural therapy CBT or antidepressants such as Zoloft instead of benzodiazepines, which should be used only to bridge the two or three weeks needed for antidepressants to kick in.

A study from Harvard Medical School found that benzodiazepine prescribing among psychiatrists in the US has remained stable in recent years. The doubling of prescriptions from to was due, instead, to primary care doctors, who are often unfamiliar with current recommendations in psychiatry. In the US, benzodiazepine concerns have been largely ignored in the shadow of the opioid crisis, but many experts view these as similar epidemics that persist because no alternatives match the fast-acting efficacy that these meds provide.

In short, benzodiazepines have been some of the most prescribed drugs for decades, but a clear understanding of their cognitive effects has emerged only recently.

This is due in part to the paradox that both anxiety and its treatment with benzodiazepines can cause similar problems. A research review in from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, of studies involving both anxious and nonanxious long-term benzodiazepine users found that some cognitive effects, including deficits in working and recent memory, lasted for both groups long after they stopped taking the drugs, even as much as three and a half years later.

The results lead Simon Crowe, professor of neuroscience at La Trobe, to conclude that these effects can continue indefinitely. Memory impairment can cause us to be unmoored from who we are. I thought I knew anxiety, but the months of weening off the meds were worse than anything I had previously experienced. Benzodiazepines probably saved my life. I would choose to take them again, but for a shorter period of time.

But chronic anxiety and panic attacks are intolerable and make everyday functioning impossible. By the time I saw a psychiatrist, the panic had grown beyond what I could manage, and I forced myself to endure a lot of unnecessary suffering while hoping to tough it out. That being said, tolerance develops quickly.