Begona Fernandez | Granada (EFE).- Anxiolytics are not innocuous, their chronic and prolonged use has consequences and the first is an increase in the risk of mortality by 21%, but in Spain their use is trivialized and Orfidal, Valium, Tranxilium and Lexatin are They are considered “first-aid kit medicines”, where they arrive due to an excess of medical prescription.
In an interview with Efe, within the framework of the XXIX national congress of the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG), the head of the mental health working group, Antonio Torres, explains that “this does not mean that the doctor has the blame”. Instead, the doctor is forced to respond – within five minutes of a Primary Care consultation – to a social demand in which the patient demands “quick relief” from his symptoms.
Spain is the world leader in the consumption of benzodiazepines. A medication used to treat anxiety, stress, insomnia, muscle spasms, and epileptic seizures. And that taken continuously -for more than three months- causes muscle weakness. Motor coordination problems and memory alterations. But it also maintains a degree of sedation during the day that is the cause of traffic and work accidents
Young people ask for benzodiazepines for an exam or to get their license
8% of the Spanish population uses benzodiazepines daily and 10% does so every month. Consumption in Spain is 100 doses per day per 1,000 inhabitants. Followed by Portugal with 84 daily doses and Belgium, 80 and far from Germany’s 0.4.
According to the head of the SEMG mental health group, the profile is very broad. And it ranges from the youngest who ask for a prescription for this medication due to the anxiety that taking an exam or a driver’s license generates to those over 65 years of age. For those who chronic consumption has a high risk of causing falls and accidents at home due to the drowsiness they cause.
There are also young people who make recreational use and consume these drugs after taking stimulants, such as amphetamines. “If they are very fast, with benzodiazepines they try to slow down before going home,” he says.
Population of all ages is involved in this abusive consumption. According to Torres, there has been a paradigm shift in vital conflicts: “Our society is not for waiting or for situations of reflection or slow therapies, and seeks immediate relief.”
And it is that what was previously an upset, a duel or a personal conflict has become an anxious process because “one of the symptoms is feeling anxiety, but anxiety in itself is not a disease”, specifies this health expert that admits that vital processes have been medicalized.
Stop the misuse of benzodiazepines
The person in charge of the SEMG mental health group considers that “when a medication is misused, or over-prescribed, the obligation is to put a stop to that misuse.” And Spain must take the reins to reduce these very high consumption figures.
In Torres’ opinion, the solution involves the support of the institutions. And a national pact led by the Ministry of Health as happened with the misuse of antibiotics. But also for providing information to the patient in the consultation so that they perceive the risks that they have to regularly consume anxiolytics.
According to this expert, the simple verbal explanation of the doctor to the patient causes 18% to abandon consumption. And if documentation or cards to read at home are added, the percentage rises to 25%.
If follow-up in the clinic is added to these two simple techniques for a while, the dropout rate of patients who “disengage” from benzodiazepines reaches 75%.
For this reason, Torres believes that with strong institutional support and social awareness, the prescription of these drugs would no longer be so relaxed. And it would be limited to pathologies that really require it.