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Benzodiazepines are a type of medication known as tranquilizers. Familiar names include Valium and Xanax. They are some of the most commonly prescribed medications in the United States. When people without prescriptions obtain and take these drugs for their sedating effects, use turns into abuse.
The patients had been taking prescribed benzodiazepine for 1-22 years (mean duration 9.76 years). Benzodiazepine dosages at the start of withdrawal varied from 4mg diazepam daily to 5mg lorazepam plus 40mg diazepam daily (approximately equivalent to 80mg diazepam daily[11]).