Benzodiazepine class action law suit

Posted by shake @shake, Nov 4, 2022

Has anyone looked into a class action law suit regarding Benzodiazepines?

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@lauralouisenelson

How have benzos permanently affected my life? Let me count the ways. I was a professional at the height of my career in 2005, always a light sleeper with episodic sleep trouble, but I hit a really tough spot during the end of life process and death of my father. I now recognize this as sleep anxiety that grew from some nights with little or no sleep, for concern for my father. It grew into a full blown sleep disorder.

I was prescribed the magic sleep elixir, Clonazepam, no informed consent, no warning of risk for tolerance, dependence, cognitive or any other problems - take this pill and sleep will return. It did. I had NO IDEA what this pill was doing in my brain, was prescribed over and over again, no questions asked, by a revolving door of docs who came and went. It wasn't until I had been on it nightly for 10 years and was experiencing terrible sleep that my new PCP told me about benzos and dependence, tolerance and withdrawal. I was mortified. I tapered 1/3 of the dose slowly, and at great cost to my sleep and well being.

My sleep has worsened over time, reducing my quality of life, I have anxiety I never had before, I have a very depressed mood I never had before. I was tough as nails, now I cry all the time, I can't handle any stress, I can't calm myself, I have withdrawn from friends and family, I isolate, I have intense headaches, burning mouth, taste distortion, nausea, GI distress, significant not healthy weight loss, the list is long. In 2019, one week into my retirement, a new PCP told me I needed to stop taking clonazepam, at which point I began another slow taper. This one lasted two years, I stopped sleeping completely and was slammed with withdrawal. At the end of two years, I was still tapering, not close to the end of the taper but close to the end of my rope, I couldn't continue this way. A new PCP and my prescribing doc decided with me that the withdrawal process has permanently damaged/dysregulated my central nervous system, and now recommend continuing to take the drug as a "palliative" measure.

So I am trapped on a drug that no longer helps me sleep, in fact has damaged my sleep, but without which I simply don't sleep at all. Every pill I take I know is doing further damage, but the extended suffering of withdrawal is not compatible with life. I sleep some, but have many nights each week where the quality/quantity of my sleep is insufficient, so I live in a state of nearly constant sleep deprivation, which has had drastic consequences for my health, quality of life, well being, state of mind.
I get so low when I realize that this - shitty existence - is what my life will look like for the remainder of my days.
Can't work, can't play, can't eat, can't sleep...I missed every holiday with family this season because I was too sleep deprived to be any good. Giant anxiety and irritability, I'm actually afraid of escalating and going off on an undeserving relative so I stay home after a bad night. I stay home and think about dying. My three decade domestic partnership fell apart, so I live alone, for the best because I don't wish myself on anyone. Plenty of me time.
I attribute every single one of the above issues to taking benzos for way too long that they have injured my brain, which doesn't function great with them and hardly functions at all without them. I see no future for myself that doesn't involve suffering. I retired relatively young so I could fully enjoy my life after a 30 year career. I had plans. Now I can't even leave the house several days per week. Travel? Forget it. Another job? Can't do it. New friendships? I've alienated all the old ones because I'm not a good reliable friend and they don't understand why, so no, there are no new friendships. My family tries very hard to be supportive, but they see me falling apart before their eyes, and I'm not always easy to get along with. A burden on those I care for the most.

Since 2005 and the beginning of Clonazepam, I can see it so clearly now, I have evolved into a completely different person, one I barely recognize and don't care for at all. I grieve the loss of my old self - happy, funny, silly, curious, intelligent, ambitious, active, friendly, confident, reliable - she's gone. I am now working with a therapist to try and find some sense of value, meaning, purpose in this "new life" I didn't ask for and don't want, which bears almost no resemblance to the life I had before benzos.

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As you have these two doctors confirming that Benzos have caused brain damage I would certainly think you would without question pursue a lawsuit. I absolutely would. If the lady in the video won you can win. You’re very lucky to have these doctors. Perhaps you can use the same attorneys in the video or they could refer you to someone. Make an appointment with the doctor in the video. I see they’re expert witnesses?

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@cgs

May the God of All Comfort be with you and your son. I pray for you, I don't understand there's so much that I don't understand that God does, about things going on in my wife's life and my life and the life of my daughter who lost her young son, our grandson September 2020. There's so much grieving in my wife life these last few years, every day. I believe that it's harming her a lot. she also hasn't been out of the house since covid started since she had a reaction to a flu shot about 2 years before 20/20 we have several children that are in their 50s but they don't seem to understand or unable to help...

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I was put on a half a mg of klonopin in the morning and a full mg at 4:00.
I had to spend 12 days in a hospital for an unrelated issue.
I was then transferred to a rehab facility and was there for 10 days. During those 22 days I was not given my klonopin. They cut me off cold turkey. I became a raging maniac and I had to beg the doctor to prescribe me back on klonopin.
He didn’t. Instead he put me on adavan 1 mg twice a day until I got out of rehab.

I was literally begging the nurse for klonopin and she kept telling me that the doctor didn’t order it. The adavan helped a little but I was a walking Zombie.

Being off klonopin for that long totally ruined my life as I knew it. Especially since it was done cold turkey. No taper. I had to settle for Adavan because it was better than nothing.
My sleeping was for only for 3 to 4 hours and then I would wake up feeling extreme anxiety.

I couldn’t stop shaking and I still had to wait until 8:00 AM. I went crazy as I had no medication between 3:00 AM and 8:00 AM. That was an unbearable 5 hours.

I survived until I got home and my klonopin was restarted and noticed that klonopin wasn’t working as it used to. So my shrink added 100 mg of seroquel and 100 mg of Wellbutrin and 150 mg of lamictal. It’s turned me into a scared little baby and I’m 69.

I don’t feel myself anymore. I’m isolating, getting irritated at the slightest thing. Completely lost my patience. I have zero patience now. But with the other medications has caused me to unwillingly fall asleep while playing with my phone or just sitting on the couch. I gaze off into space. The hospital should never have stopped my klonopin abruptly. Now two weeks later I’m still messed up.

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God help you soon, I pray in Jesus name.

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@andytheman

I was put on a half a mg of klonopin in the morning and a full mg at 4:00.
I had to spend 12 days in a hospital for an unrelated issue.
I was then transferred to a rehab facility and was there for 10 days. During those 22 days I was not given my klonopin. They cut me off cold turkey. I became a raging maniac and I had to beg the doctor to prescribe me back on klonopin.
He didn’t. Instead he put me on adavan 1 mg twice a day until I got out of rehab.

I was literally begging the nurse for klonopin and she kept telling me that the doctor didn’t order it. The adavan helped a little but I was a walking Zombie.

Being off klonopin for that long totally ruined my life as I knew it. Especially since it was done cold turkey. No taper. I had to settle for Adavan because it was better than nothing.
My sleeping was for only for 3 to 4 hours and then I would wake up feeling extreme anxiety.

I couldn’t stop shaking and I still had to wait until 8:00 AM. I went crazy as I had no medication between 3:00 AM and 8:00 AM. That was an unbearable 5 hours.

I survived until I got home and my klonopin was restarted and noticed that klonopin wasn’t working as it used to. So my shrink added 100 mg of seroquel and 100 mg of Wellbutrin and 150 mg of lamictal. It’s turned me into a scared little baby and I’m 69.

I don’t feel myself anymore. I’m isolating, getting irritated at the slightest thing. Completely lost my patience. I have zero patience now. But with the other medications has caused me to unwillingly fall asleep while playing with my phone or just sitting on the couch. I gaze off into space. The hospital should never have stopped my klonopin abruptly. Now two weeks later I’m still messed up.

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@andytherman, @cgs, and all...Andy, your experience sounds horrific. I'm so sorry you went through that unnecessary pain and horror. After going through the cold-turkey Klonopin withdrawal experience with my son, I can only imagine your time. I can say that now, after the withdrawal, several hospitalizations related to that medication, being on a ventilator for 3 days after having Ketamine pushed by a rescue person I called to help him after days of seizures and rages, and much more, we are now beginning to get the real help from the limited resources in our medical system. These kinds of issues are so difficult to address well.

It's nearly impossible to find where to go for help, to locate someone who knows how to help and is willing and available to help. I know if it weren't for me and my determination and relentless research/calling/fighting for so many years, my son would have died long ago.

That's simply wrong. In every way possible, it's wrong. In this country, so blessed and with such a marvelous health care system in many ways, to have the horrid experiences he's had and end up in multiple critical situations due to medical mistakes, oversights, malpractice, laziness, and limitations in available services...to not be able to find the proper doctors and personnel who understand his issues...I am stunned. I'm furious. I'm heartbroken.

I get more furious as I read about more folks going through similar experiences. How can this happen in our wonderful country?

Here is some information I have recently found that may prove helpful for someone experiencing some of these problems. We spent 20 years to find a neurologist who truly understands movement disorders and to get some treatments regularly scheduled for pain reduction, i.e. botox injections, every 8 weeks not 12 as is normally allowed, nerve ablations as needed, a Dilaudid pain pump, appropriate sleep and mental health medications to help get him through each day.

I just found a cervical pain PT specialist who's helping greatly, gradually, in wonderful small ways to relieve pain and help him with movement. A movement disorder clinic with a neurologist who truly understands his movements/gait issues/pains/anger/ anxiety/concerns about life! Living! A neuropsychologist specializing in pain management who's helping him understand what's happening, how the brain and pain work, why he feels and acts as he does, his anger and rage, a neuropsychiatrist who specializes in movement disorders and all the mental issues associated with such a life and so much more. Finally, someone gets him and his needs. He finally has someone who can guide him in his thinking to move forward to a better state of survival. Do you know how long it's been and the mountains we've climbed to get here?

This has been a battle we almost lost last year. This year, we both feel our journey is leading to a better place. We have finally found a combination of people who get us, get his personal hell and needs, get me and my needs. God gave me the strength and the time, I'm now 76, to fight to get us to this place. God gave him the strength to fight to survive, to live.

When you have very special needs and unusual conditions, you must advocate for yourself and your loved one constantly, ferociously, until you get someone to hear your words. Until you connect with someone who will listen and have some knowledge and ability to help.

Of course, I'm concerned that after my time on this earth, my son will be completely alone. I pray by that time he'll have the support system in place to get him through the alone years he has yet to live. There's nothing right or good or acceptable about this situation. It's wrong. But, it is. We accept this as it is and keep fighting to make it better.

God bless you each and every one. I pray my words help someone to find professionals who can help, to see a possibility for himself. I pray you find the help and peace to make it through this journey. elizabeth

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Thank you for the words of encouragement. My problem is not with the lack of doctors, neurologists, psychiatrists, and others. My problem is that doctors who should know better, simply don’t care or “have the time “ to treat you and to ask you “what’s wrong?”. You usually have to go through nurses to get a doctors attention and nurses (my sister is an RN in a major Boston hospital so I don’t dislike nurses) like I was saying, nurses are notoriously slow. I blame the lack of nurses and the fact that doctors just use them as proxies. They are overworked indeed.

I asked the nurse where I was transferred to for rehab that I hadn’t had klonopin in 10 days while in the hospital and I really need one. It was 8:00 in the morning and it got the usual “I’ll contact the doctor in a few minutes right now I’m busy “

A half hour goes by and I asked her if she had gotten a chance to call the doctor and she acted like “don’t push me “. At that point in a private rehab I told the nurse to “never mind calling the doctor, call me an ambulance” she was saying “that’s ok if we have to send you back to the hospital so I stood there shaking like a leaf and wouldn’t budge. I was deliberately in their way and in their face and they could tell I was becoming infuriated.

Finally the nurse called my doctor at the hospital and they said that “he would call back”

By now I’m in a fight or fright mood and highly uncontrollable as anxiety took over me and I became someone I didn’t like.

It wasn’t me anymore, it was a crazed delusional person that I had become. I begged them like a little child and sat on the floor in front of their desk. Finally in 15 minutes the doctor called and the nurse told him about my need for a klonopin.

She hung up with him and said “the doctor said to give you one adavan in the morning only. Not klonopin witch I was on prior to being admitted to the hospital for another matter. Anyways I figured that I’m not going to get the klonopin my psychiatrist had put me on legally.
The next day I told them one isn’t enough because it was one every 24 hours. Unacceptable. She called the doctor and he ordered a second adavan so now I’m on one every twelve hours. Not good enough. Still no klonopin. That drug is really dangerous if you don’t get it once you’re hooked.

When I got home I immediately took 1 mg of Klonopin and it was like instant relief. I am still on klonopin and I will be forever. Bad stuff!

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How terrible you went through that experience.
God comfort and protect you. In Jesus name. Amen

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All of the doctors that I've had and nurses and pharmacists that I can remember have always told me that it how important it was not to miss or go off of my Klonopin I don't understand how they could do that to you my doctor's have always been diligent to make sure that I've had my medication I've been taking Klonopin since 1994 I've actually been able to lower my dose although my doctors told me not to go off of it all together when I've asked him about it I thank God that they put me on it because before that I couldn't do anything I couldn't concentrate I couldn't drive a car I would just sit and rock all the time I was fearful I just wasn't able to function very much at all

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@cgs

All of the doctors that I've had and nurses and pharmacists that I can remember have always told me that it how important it was not to miss or go off of my Klonopin I don't understand how they could do that to you my doctor's have always been diligent to make sure that I've had my medication I've been taking Klonopin since 1994 I've actually been able to lower my dose although my doctors told me not to go off of it all together when I've asked him about it I thank God that they put me on it because before that I couldn't do anything I couldn't concentrate I couldn't drive a car I would just sit and rock all the time I was fearful I just wasn't able to function very much at all

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You know what happened?
I went to Landmark Hospital for an emergency crisis. I gave the triage nurse a copy of all my current and updated list of medications.

They lost it and instead of faxing a request for a copy of my current medication from my nurse (assisted living facility) they looked at my records in their laptop from years ago when I was not on klonopin and went with that!
So I was never going to get it. Even though I told them that they had a 3 year old list on their laptop.
They wouldn’t listen as they were running around and would only go by what my chart said. That’s why I was abruptly stopped from taking my klonopin for 10 days and then another 10 days in the inpatient rehab center.

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Who are you looking to specifically file a class action lawsuit against? Witch pharmaceutical company?
Big Pharma gives millions of dollars to politicians in congress and they have a law firm team that can crush us little people.

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@sears

I wish I knew. The pharmaceutical companies and the doctors need to be held accountable. Making someone cold turkey a benzodiazepine is heinous. The doctor tortured your son and got away with it. Maybe someday we’ll be taken seriously. In the mean time good luck and God bless.

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Why is it even legal for doctors to cold turkey any long term user? Now we have the issue of finding Benzo as Drug stores. only so many benzo's are allowed to each pharmacy.
Years ago I suffered for 6 mths after an attempt was made to stop my Valium in 3 days. Day 1 my heart rate, blood pressure went crazy so was admitted to the hospital. I couldn't hold i throwing up, having tremors, seizures at day 2. Day 3 a nurse comes in the room to inform me he had no benzo at all for me on day 3. The nurses weren't trained, didn't know what to expect and told me that. I got in my purse took a low mg benzo, made an appt at families inc. A specialist there, starting helping me. He gave me klonopin and seizure meds. Lots of therapy! My family doc. Left me laying in a hospital bed and he or nurses having no knowledge of how to treat me.
It took 6 mths of throwing up, tremors, I couldn't leave my bedroom. In and out of the ER for fluids. Lots of nausea meds, sleeping, and only leaving for medical attention. Losing 60 lbs at about 35 yrs old. On disability within 5 years. It ruined my life. Now I have to worry my drug store won't have my meds over 20 yrs later. So I have over 35 yrs of being perscribed benzo. I already know cold turkey don't work. But who helps me when I can't find a drug store. I have severe anxiety and panic disorder. A slue of health issues. My fear is its gonna kill long term users. I've worked on cutting down. Very slowly but with bi- polar disorder, I cant calm myself. So start my regular dose to get through a maniac episode. How will I deal now at almost 59 yrs old. Who is fighting for the people who face possible death when there are no pharmacies with their script??? What happens to patients who either take benzo or try to survive non stop seizures for hours? I'm not healthy enough to go through that!

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