Bergwall said he stuck to his confessions until he stopped taking benzodiazepines in 2001.
Most of these studies show no ill effects of benzodiazepines on either mental functioning or physical health.
It has been folk wisdom within medicine that using benzodiazepines for a long time is a bad idea.
The vast majority of people who take benzodiazepines for extended periods are highly compliant and follow doctors' orders closely.
Information on the dangers of benzodiazepines is being promoted on buses, posters and leaflets across the region from next week.
Most antidepressants also treat panic attacks, but unlike benzodiazepines, they require several weeks of being taken daily before their effects are usually seen.
And medications called benzodiazepines that work on the same brain systems as alcohol can actually make PTSD worse when taken on a regular basis.
Unlike antidepressants, which take days to weeks to turn down brain anxiety centers (and to show clinical effect), Xanax and other benzodiazepines produce immediate relief.
Latest figures show 293 people died in the UK in 2011 from misuse of benzodiazepines, more than double the 125 killed by cocaine and ecstasy combined.
Benzodiazepines are hugely effective, but they have two major drawbacks.
So, we don't know how the long-term use of benzodiazepines changes the brain, nor do we know how long it would take for all effects of these medications to go away.
Compared with other benzodiazepines, Xanax has an additional problem.
Dr David Gunnell and colleagues from Bristol University point out that the method of suicide favoured by women - drug overdose - has become less lethal owing to the replacement of barbiturates by the less toxic benzodiazepines in the 1980s.
Like most other psychiatrists, I dislike Xanax for this reason and will often try to switch long-term Xanax users to one of the other benzodiazepines that has a longer half-life and less liability for producing patterns of rising and falling anxiety across the day.
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