How/why do benzodiazepines relieve symptoms?

[BrettP]

Drink some scotch. ;)

[ryguyy26]

I have a question for anyone familiar with benzos. My mom has been on anti-anxiety medicine and anti-depressants since her early 30's and takes them every day. Anxiety issues run in my family with a number of family members on my mom's side being diagnosed with anxiety disorders. I have had anxiety on and off since I was a about 16 or 17. I've been given anxiety medicine before to deal with it and last summer a few months before I came down with chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome my doctor wanted to put me on anxiety medicine every day because he felt my condition was getting worse. I refused and told him I would be fine taking it only when I needed it. However, he warned me with my family history that eventually I would need it.

Now my doctor is talking about putting me on anti-anxiety and anti-depressants. From reading everything said here about how benzos can in fact make chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome worse, I was wondering what some of you think I should do?

[webslave]

High doses of some SSRIs, like Lexapro, are better for anxiety (includes Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), social phobia and OCD), and can safely be used long-term, unlike benzos.
See
http://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18922243
http://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16420082

[BrettP]

Benzos work at first and are very effective. However when your body gets tolerant to the medication or you stop, it can really really jack with your head. I've just dropped another 2.5mgs. Down to 5. And I'm getting muscle spasms, twitching, anxiety. Feels like a flare up. But every time I have reduced dosage I get symptomatic. Then it gets better. That's the risk you run if you take them for too long. For a quick flare breaker it could work. But once you get tolerant it's more about keeping the withdrawal symptoms at bay. Just my personal opinion and experience.

[boulder]

Wikipedia has a great illustration showing the different mechanisms by which 3 different types of muscle relaxants (baclofen, benzodiazepines, and dantrolene) achieve their effects:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... icity2.svg

A view of the spinal cord and skeletal muscle showing the action of various muscle relaxants. Black lines ending in arrow heads represent chemicals or actions that enhance the target of the lines. Blue lines ending in squares represent chemicals or actions that inhibition the target of the line.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_relaxant )

[CMT23]

This is an old thread, but I thought I would add my experience. For many years 5mg of valium and a couple glasses of wine knocked out my discomfort for hours. Even the Valium on its own brings huge relief, especially if I couple it with a hot bath and lying down. I find that Klonopin at night works better for me to sleep and then I spend much of the next morning feeling nearly symptom free. I guess this proves that this is a tension disorder?

I know I can't take these meds every day. Right now it's probably 2 to 3 times a week. I wait until I really can't stand the discomfort or when it prevents me from sleeping.

By the way, 5mg Valium combined with 50mg Tramadol also brings significant relief. I tried Tramadol daily. Worked for a few days and I was ecstatic. Then stopped working and after 3 weeks the withdrawal symptoms were horrible. Laughing then crying, no sleep, anxiety.