Benzodiazepine class action law suit

Posted by shake @shake, Nov 4, 2022

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

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Depression & Anxiety Support Group.

@andytheman

I know that people here don’t take it lightly. Thats why I’m here. That’s not what I meant. I find that it shouldn’t be taken lightly by psychiatrists because it is still being prescribed by doctors who should, by now, recognize it’s potency and potential for harm.
Because it works they continue to prescribe it.
Prescribers should inform their patients the addictive nature of benzodiazepines and the nearly impossible ability to withstand coming off them. I would have never taken them had I known that they are addictive and nearly impossible to quit taking them.

Jump to this post

Timely comment here. My docs office (former sleep doctor) called me just yesterday to schedule follow up since it's been a while since I've been back after my tremors etc. started with the klonopin. I told her of all the issues it caused me and wasn't coming back. she must have told physician as he called me back quickly. After I told him of all of the issues I had with this drug he basically told me he has been prescribing it for 30 years with well over 300 patients and I was the first to express concerns?? How is that possible? Also as crazy as that sounds, I also just spoke to a pharamcist who recently retired and he told me he hadn't even seen a script for klonopin in years, go figure. He said - that was a drug prescribed back in the 70's. Now, he did work for hospital pharmacy not retail so not sure if that explains it?

REPLY

I’ve taken Ativan for years and I know that I am addicted to this drug..my doctor warned me for years about them and how difficult it is to get off them, all the while it was already too long. I tried many times to wean myself off them and I succeeded twice but somehow with my doctor’s help I went back to them. I don’t think that I can do it anymore, I have even bigger fish to fry as they say, having to deal with cancer and all the insanity of today’s world..my point is that I just want to be able to cope with my life and if they could find a better drug for anxiety that works as well I would definitely be on it. The worst thing a doctor can do to us is prescribe meds that cause so much trouble and then later when all the negative publicity comes out, they don’t want to be associated with it anymore.. they the callously make you feel like the bad guy and they DO NOT take any responsibility for your addiction, they would rather try a bunch of other drugs to replace the benzodiazepine. I tried doing the same and I don’t advise anyone to do this because it truly messed me up. The fact remains that drugs are a mixed bag of tricks and they can be your best ally or your worst enemy

REPLY
@frouke

I’ve taken Ativan for years and I know that I am addicted to this drug..my doctor warned me for years about them and how difficult it is to get off them, all the while it was already too long. I tried many times to wean myself off them and I succeeded twice but somehow with my doctor’s help I went back to them. I don’t think that I can do it anymore, I have even bigger fish to fry as they say, having to deal with cancer and all the insanity of today’s world..my point is that I just want to be able to cope with my life and if they could find a better drug for anxiety that works as well I would definitely be on it. The worst thing a doctor can do to us is prescribe meds that cause so much trouble and then later when all the negative publicity comes out, they don’t want to be associated with it anymore.. they the callously make you feel like the bad guy and they DO NOT take any responsibility for your addiction, they would rather try a bunch of other drugs to replace the benzodiazepine. I tried doing the same and I don’t advise anyone to do this because it truly messed me up. The fact remains that drugs are a mixed bag of tricks and they can be your best ally or your worst enemy

Jump to this post

Adavan, klonopin, Xanax, and a slew of other types of benzodiazepines I am aware that I’m addicted and weaning off them is a horrible thing. Terrible withdrawal symptoms.
I have become afraid to even try weaning off them.
Adavan was given to me in the 2 months I was inpatient for something else.
I was told by the doctor that I could only be on it for 14 days (and I’m 98% sure that the same rule applies to klonopin).
What do I do now? I’m still anxious so I either need a higher dose god forbid or a weaning off of it and using another drug to replace it. I didn’t know it was from the 70’s. An old drug. I may have become immune to it to a certain extent. But the craving it is still there, even if it’s no longer working.
The best medication I’ve ever been on was Prozac. I have to research what it’s for and how come it was stopped 30 years ago.
Right now I’m on Buspar (Wellbutrin) and I’m on seroquel, klonopin, and a little dose of lamictal (I dont even know what it is for).
All those medications working together has turned me into a zombie. An irritable zombie. I fall asleep everywhere. I no longer know witch medication has turned me into an anti-social irrational monster.
If I go to a hospital all they do is hold you on a gurney or wheelchair for 4-5 hours and then they send you home. You’re lucky if you even see a psychiatrist witch I desperately need.
I’m in a catch-22. Damned if I do and dammed if I don’t. I’m between a rock and a hard place. Scary.

REPLY
@andytheman

Adavan, klonopin, Xanax, and a slew of other types of benzodiazepines I am aware that I’m addicted and weaning off them is a horrible thing. Terrible withdrawal symptoms.
I have become afraid to even try weaning off them.
Adavan was given to me in the 2 months I was inpatient for something else.
I was told by the doctor that I could only be on it for 14 days (and I’m 98% sure that the same rule applies to klonopin).
What do I do now? I’m still anxious so I either need a higher dose god forbid or a weaning off of it and using another drug to replace it. I didn’t know it was from the 70’s. An old drug. I may have become immune to it to a certain extent. But the craving it is still there, even if it’s no longer working.
The best medication I’ve ever been on was Prozac. I have to research what it’s for and how come it was stopped 30 years ago.
Right now I’m on Buspar (Wellbutrin) and I’m on seroquel, klonopin, and a little dose of lamictal (I dont even know what it is for).
All those medications working together has turned me into a zombie. An irritable zombie. I fall asleep everywhere. I no longer know witch medication has turned me into an anti-social irrational monster.
If I go to a hospital all they do is hold you on a gurney or wheelchair for 4-5 hours and then they send you home. You’re lucky if you even see a psychiatrist witch I desperately need.
I’m in a catch-22. Damned if I do and dammed if I don’t. I’m between a rock and a hard place. Scary.

Jump to this post

I truly sympathize with you, I don’t know how this happened to you but on a positive note, you’re aware of this and it’s a start. A good doctor who listens to you and realizes that you’re on a number of drugs where one doesn’t do enough and another is making you sleepy all day..I was on Paxil which is a Prozac and it helped me for a while but then it turned on me. It’s one of the biggest challenges for us to find the right treatment and the journey to finding it is a very tough thing to go through, please don’t give up trying because you will find what’s right for you, as you say you want a psychiatrist but perhaps a therapist would be better, my experience with psychiatrist is that they also use meds more than active therapy. In the seventies I went to my first psychiatrist and he put me on Valium and I was hooked in no time, back then it was a very popular drug and a nightmare to get off it. It’s my belief that some of us are predisposed to being very vulnerable to this type of drug, once you have had experience with them it never leaves you just like any addiction, once you’ve stopped them you can’t ever take them again. I know that I don’t have it inside me anymore to go through another withdrawal and live to talk about it.

REPLY

I have taken clonazepam and methylphenidate for 5 years for treatment resistant depression and severe anxiety. If I did not have these medicines I would be dead today by suicide. I am not addicted to these drugs, and I have worked with my psychiatric nurses to learn how to taper off them completely if needed. They know the potential for harm of these drugs and they monitor me strictly and regularly. These drugs should not be prescribed to people who have addictive tendencies! But if you make it illegal for me to take them (by prescription only!) you will kill me, and I will despise you until the day I die. I hope you will be happy then for butting in where you don't belong. I politely ask you to mind your own business and leave your hands off my health.

REPLY
@andytheman

Adavan, klonopin, Xanax, and a slew of other types of benzodiazepines I am aware that I’m addicted and weaning off them is a horrible thing. Terrible withdrawal symptoms.
I have become afraid to even try weaning off them.
Adavan was given to me in the 2 months I was inpatient for something else.
I was told by the doctor that I could only be on it for 14 days (and I’m 98% sure that the same rule applies to klonopin).
What do I do now? I’m still anxious so I either need a higher dose god forbid or a weaning off of it and using another drug to replace it. I didn’t know it was from the 70’s. An old drug. I may have become immune to it to a certain extent. But the craving it is still there, even if it’s no longer working.
The best medication I’ve ever been on was Prozac. I have to research what it’s for and how come it was stopped 30 years ago.
Right now I’m on Buspar (Wellbutrin) and I’m on seroquel, klonopin, and a little dose of lamictal (I dont even know what it is for).
All those medications working together has turned me into a zombie. An irritable zombie. I fall asleep everywhere. I no longer know witch medication has turned me into an anti-social irrational monster.
If I go to a hospital all they do is hold you on a gurney or wheelchair for 4-5 hours and then they send you home. You’re lucky if you even see a psychiatrist witch I desperately need.
I’m in a catch-22. Damned if I do and dammed if I don’t. I’m between a rock and a hard place. Scary.

Jump to this post

Buspar IS NOT Wellbutrin my friend. Please know and understand what you are taking, especially in a cocktail of drugs like that. If you told a hospital you are on Wellbutrin that’s what they would give you and you would be in a world of trouble.
Buspar is NOT an antidepressant, Wellbutrin is.

REPLY
@rosebookay

Buspar IS NOT Wellbutrin my friend. Please know and understand what you are taking, especially in a cocktail of drugs like that. If you told a hospital you are on Wellbutrin that’s what they would give you and you would be in a world of trouble.
Buspar is NOT an antidepressant, Wellbutrin is.

Jump to this post

I stand corrected but you didn’t have to tell me to mind my own business. I wasn’t talking to you. That was rude and maybe you need a medication adjustment. Relax (if you can). The generic name for both is almost identical to me. I’m not a pharmacist. Wellbutrin was in my hospital’s computer and they gave it to me and I wasn’t in a world of trouble.
One day they gave me Buspar to supposedly take the edge off. I told them not to add Buspar to my cocktail. So they stopped it.
This thread started off with something about joining a class action suit regarding benzodiazepine addiction.
Why would that even come up if benzodiazepines are not dangerous to get off of?
Then I followed the thread and many others talked about benzodiazepines being addictive. Why do so many people, not all are in this forum, say it’s addictive? I understand now why nobody had any lawyers willing to take a benzodiazepine class action lawsuit. Live and learn I guess. I’m going to research if benzodiazepines are addictive to everyone not just those who have an addiction issue. I don’t know why my comments are coming up twice.

REPLY
@arthur57

Timely comment here. My docs office (former sleep doctor) called me just yesterday to schedule follow up since it's been a while since I've been back after my tremors etc. started with the klonopin. I told her of all the issues it caused me and wasn't coming back. she must have told physician as he called me back quickly. After I told him of all of the issues I had with this drug he basically told me he has been prescribing it for 30 years with well over 300 patients and I was the first to express concerns?? How is that possible? Also as crazy as that sounds, I also just spoke to a pharamcist who recently retired and he told me he hadn't even seen a script for klonopin in years, go figure. He said - that was a drug prescribed back in the 70's. Now, he did work for hospital pharmacy not retail so not sure if that explains it?

Jump to this post

You need to be aware of folks in the Mayo forums. I was just told by a person that I didn’t know what I was talking about. I had mentioned that Wellbutrin and Buspar were the same. I stood corrected but the person went further by telling me to mind my own business and not to mess with his health because of the statement I made that Benzodiazepines should be removed from pharmacy shelves.

He went on to say that if it wasn’t for benzodiazepines he would not be here and would have died by suicide and how would I feel if benzodiazepines were removed from pharmacy shelves. In other words. I would be responsible for his death and “how would you feel?”
I researched benzodiazepines as addictive and he asserted that they aren’t.
My research resulted in my conclusion that benzodiazepines are addictive. The person that told me to mind my own business was in a group about class action lawsuits regarding benzodiazepines.

Why would they be talking about filing class action lawsuits regarding benzodiazepines unless there is some evidence that it can be.
He claimed that only people with addiction problems should not take benzodiazepines and that he is aware of the harm that they can cause. Besides my own research many people on this thread are of the same opinion. That benzodiazepines are addictive.
They are a controlled substance and carry a black box warning.
There are many medications that should not be used while on benzodiazepines, including depression medications and about 20 side effects.

I asked if it was the horrible withdrawal symptoms that caused it to be addictive because the medication itself is not addictive but they are in a sense because people can’t get off them and go back to taking them again to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms.

I’ve heard it from people that are on benzodiazepines that they are addicted to them and it could take up to a year to recover completely using the weaning off method. I take 0.5 in the morning and 1 mg at 4:00 so I’m probably one of the lucky ones that could wean off my klonopin fairly easily.

I was impatient in a hospital for something unrelated and my chart of current medications was lost by the hospital so they used a medication chart that was 3 years old and I wasn’t on Klonopin then so they cut me off cold turkey and refused to give me any klonopin for 20 days and I’m not going to get into how horrible it was to quit abruptly but I wanted to die.

Was it because I was no longer given klonopin or something else in my drug cocktail. Funny though when I finally got home I took a 1 mg tablet of klonopin and I immediately calmed down within 20 minutes. Apparently it’s helping the person who told me he’d be dead without them so I guess it works differently on other people.

REPLY
@andytheman

You need to be aware of folks in the Mayo forums. I was just told by a person that I didn’t know what I was talking about. I had mentioned that Wellbutrin and Buspar were the same. I stood corrected but the person went further by telling me to mind my own business and not to mess with his health because of the statement I made that Benzodiazepines should be removed from pharmacy shelves.

He went on to say that if it wasn’t for benzodiazepines he would not be here and would have died by suicide and how would I feel if benzodiazepines were removed from pharmacy shelves. In other words. I would be responsible for his death and “how would you feel?”
I researched benzodiazepines as addictive and he asserted that they aren’t.
My research resulted in my conclusion that benzodiazepines are addictive. The person that told me to mind my own business was in a group about class action lawsuits regarding benzodiazepines.

Why would they be talking about filing class action lawsuits regarding benzodiazepines unless there is some evidence that it can be.
He claimed that only people with addiction problems should not take benzodiazepines and that he is aware of the harm that they can cause. Besides my own research many people on this thread are of the same opinion. That benzodiazepines are addictive.
They are a controlled substance and carry a black box warning.
There are many medications that should not be used while on benzodiazepines, including depression medications and about 20 side effects.

I asked if it was the horrible withdrawal symptoms that caused it to be addictive because the medication itself is not addictive but they are in a sense because people can’t get off them and go back to taking them again to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms.

I’ve heard it from people that are on benzodiazepines that they are addicted to them and it could take up to a year to recover completely using the weaning off method. I take 0.5 in the morning and 1 mg at 4:00 so I’m probably one of the lucky ones that could wean off my klonopin fairly easily.

I was impatient in a hospital for something unrelated and my chart of current medications was lost by the hospital so they used a medication chart that was 3 years old and I wasn’t on Klonopin then so they cut me off cold turkey and refused to give me any klonopin for 20 days and I’m not going to get into how horrible it was to quit abruptly but I wanted to die.

Was it because I was no longer given klonopin or something else in my drug cocktail. Funny though when I finally got home I took a 1 mg tablet of klonopin and I immediately calmed down within 20 minutes. Apparently it’s helping the person who told me he’d be dead without them so I guess it works differently on other people.

Jump to this post

Andy, you bring up a very good point. Mayo Clinic Connect is a forum where people can share their experiences. It is important to recognize, as you have, that everyone is different and that each person has to do what is right for them.

Medications have both benefits and risks. For some a particular drug or therapy may be life-saving, while for someone else the same drug or therapy may be ineffective or even cause side effects that undermine one's quality of life.

Thank you for respecting that we are all different and that each person's experience is unique to them.

REPLY

To all: a gentle reminder of the Community Guidelines https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/about-connect/tab/community-guidelines/

These Community Guidelines offer 12 short rules of conduct that help keep the Mayo Clinic Connect community safe, supportive, inclusive, and respectful.

We are here to learn and share personal experiences. Helping members better understand their conditions, medications, treatments, managing side effects may sometimes include correcting information. This should always be done with respect and kindness.

See guideline number 2.
2. Remain respectful at all times.
- Exercise tolerance and respect toward other participants whose views may differ from your own. Disagreements are fine, but mutual respect is a must.
- Realize that sarcasm and joking will often be misunderstood.
- Be inclusive. Not everyone shares the same religious or political beliefs. Don't impose your beliefs on others.
- Personal attacks against members or health care providers are not acceptable. Such posts will be removed.

You can report any message that doesn't follow the Community Guidelines by clicking the 3 dots (...) to the bottom right of the message.

REPLY
Please sign in or register to post a reply.