Tranquilizers - Usage Trends

Usage Trends

By the end of the twentieth century, usage trends for tranquilizers had shifted. In the 1980s, tranquilizers were used mainly to treat depressionSubstances that slow down the activity of an organism or one of its parts.. In the 1990s, they were prescribed more often for anxiety and stress disorders. As diagnoses of anxiety and stress disorders

Tranquilizers are used to help calm patients prior to surgery. Some doctors are looking into alternatives, however. Here, a doctor is shown taking a handheld game from a young boy who is about to go into surgery. Researchers have found that let
Tranquilizers are used to help calm patients prior to surgery. Some doctors are looking into alternatives, however. Here, a doctor is shown taking a handheld game from a young boy who is about to go into surgery. Researchers have found that letting children play such gamesuntil anesthesia takes effect is often more effective than tranquilizers in preventing anxiety. AP/Wide World Photos.

increased in the 1990s and early 2000s, so did the demand for tranquilizers. The 2005 CASA report states that prescriptions filled for benzodiazepines alone increased nearly 50 percent between 1992 and 2002. In addition, BZDs account for 20 percent of all prescriptions written for controlled substances in the United States. As the use of BZDs has increased, the demand for barbiturates has decreased dramatically.

Trends in the Use of Major Tranquilizers

According to Parker in Tranx: Minor Tranquilizers, Major Problems, "The major tranquilizers do not produce effects generally experienced as pleasurable, and are thus rarely abused." However, doctors are increasingly prescribing neuroleptics for children with severe cases of autism, ADHD, Tourette's syndrome, and childhood bipolar disorder. Moreover, neuroleptics are also commonly prescribed for elderly patients in nursing homes and other institutions, particularly those who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Trends in the Use of Minor Tranquilizers

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is conducted by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This well-known survey obtains information on nine different categories of illicit drug use. One of these categories includes the nonmedical use of prescription-type pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulantsA substance that increases the activity of a living organism or one of its parts., and sedatives. The NSDUH report refers to these drugs collectively as "any psychotherapeutics" (SY-koh-ther-uh-PYOO-tiks).

The latest NSDUH results available as of mid-2005 covered drug usage trends for the year 2003. NSDUH statistics showed that teenagers and young adults were increasingly turning to prescription drugs to get high. A large number of Americans became "new users" of psychotherapeutic drugs in 2003. Roughly 1.2 million people began using tranquilizers that year, and 225,000 began using sedatives. Among fifteen benzodiazepines, the nonmedical use of two specific drugs—alprazolam (Xanax) and lorazepam (Ativan)—rose the most, from 3.5 percent to 4 percent of those surveyed in 2003. Usage among eighteen to twenty-five year olds was particularly high, increasing from 6.7 to 7.5 percent in 2003.

The results of the 2004 Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, conducted by the University of Michigan (U of M) and sponsored by research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), reveal similar findings. MTF data indicate that about 2.5 percent of eighth graders, 5.1 percent of tenth graders, and 7.3 percent of high school seniors reported using drugs such as Xanax between 2003 and 2004. Barbiturate use among twelfth-grade students held steady between 2003 and 2004.

According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), psychotherapeutic agents were "the drugs most frequently involved in overmedication" emergency room visits in the last six months of 2003. More females than males were hospitalized for overmedication cases, and young people age eighteen to twenty were involved in overdose visits more often than any other age group. These statistics were the latest available from DAWN as of mid-2005.

A 2001 NIDA Research Report titled "Prescription Drugs: Abuse and Addiction" indicates that, historically, females are twice as likely as males to become addicted to sedative-hypnotic-type drugs. Furthermore, women who have been abused or have witnessed abuse in their family are more likely to use and be addicted to tranquilizers, alcohol, and illegal drugs. In general, women of all ages, older individuals of both sexes, people with low levels of education, and people with unsatisfying family lives or jobs are most likely to abuse tranquilizing drugs.

Mom's an Addict

In the 1960s, an unusual trend in tranquilizer use emerged: middle-class, suburban homemakers were becoming addicted. Known as "Mother's Little Helpers," these minor tranquilizers were prescribed by doctors to help discontented wives and mothers deal with the pressures of domestic life. Soon, advertisers caught on to the trend and marketed these drugs as a perfectly safe way to relax. Ads for tranquilizers such as Librium and Valium portrayed these drugs as the answer to anxieties about housework and demands from work, school, or family.

Such drugs were also said to help calm anxiety over political and social issues like the sexual revolution and American involvement in the Vietnam war (1954–1975). The trend became so widespread that the rock group the Rolling Stones wrote a song about it in 1966. Titled "Mother's Little Helper," the song talked about the little yellow pill that helped mothers get through the stress of their busy days.

But as use increased, so did the rate of addiction. It wasn't long before the negative effects of that addiction were also being reported. People began to realize that there was a serious downside to "Mother's Little Helper."