Anti-Anxiety Drugs

Anti-Anxiety Drugs

What are anti-anxiety drugs?

There are different types of drugs that can be used to treat anxiety.

• The only anti-anxiety drugs that should be used to treat chronic pain are some antidepressants.
  • These are described in the section on antidepressants.
• Drugs that can be used to treat pain help by increasing levels of norepinephrine and serotonin in the central nervous system.

Other anti-anxiety drugs are commonly used with individuals who have both chronic pain and anxiety.

• These are drugs that come from the benzodiazepine class.
• Such drugs include alprazolam (Xanax, Niravam), clonazepam (Klonopin), diazepam (Valium), oxazepam (Serax), flurazepam (Dalmane), and lorazepam (Ativan).

Benzodiazepines can be dangerous if they are combined with opioids or alcohol.

• They are dangerous because it can suppress respiratory drive.
  • Death from overdose usually happens because the person stopped breathing for too long.
• About 70,000 people die from overdose in the U.S. every year.
  • Many of these deaths happen after benzodiazepines are combined with opioids and/or alcohol.
  • Many of the people who die from overdose are people with chronic pain.