Benzos!

Don't love 'em, but here is some science educational content!

This is a “The Frontier Psychiatrists” Short! This newsletter is written by

Owen Muir, author

—a board certified child and adult psychiatrist¹. I’m working on a very difficult to write piece about pharmacy benefit managers and a companion piece about Carelon, and a few other pieces (108 drafts, and 3 books in draft) so this won’t be fancy, but it will be done, in keeping with my writing every day ethos! The non-science illustrations are largely from a search for “benzo memes.” It's a science explainer, so if that is super boring, it’s one to skip.

Benzodiazepine medications work rapidly for anxiety. They are additionally rapid acting anti-seizure meds, sedatives in emergency or surgical settings, and a few other uses.

They are addictive, in the traditional sense of “if you abruptly stop taking after physiological dependence forms you can die.”