Drug category: triazolobenzodiazepine
What the drug does: This drug alters the body's handling of messenger chemicals in the brain. It connects to receptors that monitor awareness level, muscle tone, coordination and memory. It suppresses electrical transmission of nerve impulses in the brain. Benzodiazepine drugs are capable of producing all levels of central nervous system depression from mild sedation to hypnosis and coma.
WARNING
XANAX ADDICTION - Physical and psychological dependence occurs. Stopping the drug suddenly can give severe withdrawal symptoms. Even after relatively short term use at the usual doses there is some risk of dependence.
XANAX WITHDRAWAL - The withdrawal symptoms of Xanax come on quickly and rapidly increase. The person feels anxiety and fear. This quickly grows into a sense of panic and grief-like severely low mood. It can progress straight to suicide at this point. During withdrawal, a person suffers extremely unstable emotions, prone to sudden outbursts of panic or crying. The person starts to feel that everything is “unreal” and they are not themselves, “like waking dream”. They can get nightmares, hallucinations (hearing voices and seeing things that are not there) and become delirious. A person not only feels like they are crazy, the withdrawal can actually make them go insane.
He or she commonly gets a tremor and headache, the heart starts to beat fast and the person feels “palpitations” or skipped beats. They are easily startled by normal sounds and movements of people or things in their environment. They are super-sensitive to touch, get hot and cold sensations and muscle pain. Their increased perception of physical things can be extreme, such as feeling the eyes are pressing into the head, or teeth rocking in their gums, or their arm falling off. They may have trouble doing things with their hands in a coordinated way, and difficulty with swallowing or talking. They feel dizzy and unsteady. All of these mental and physical sensations can convince them that they are experiencing a dread disease, heart attack or stroke. They can get a seizure and lapse into unconsciousness (coma).
It is very difficult for a person to come off of Xanax on their own.
Possible unwanted effects Any drug in the benzodiazepine class such as Xanax can cause drowsiness, lack of coordination, fatigue, confusion, weakness, dizziness and blackouts. Xanax can cause sleepiness, headache, vivid dreams, garbled speech, talkativeness, restlessness, anxiety, mania, a false sense of well being, shakiness, sleep disturbances, nightmares, agitated excitement (especially among psychiatric patients), hyperactivity, sudden rage reactions and increased muscle spasticity. In addition, Xanax can cause lightheadedness, abnormal involuntary movements, muscle twitching, anxiety, fatigue, irritability, inability to think straight, poor memory, depression and confusion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, increased sweating, fast heart rate and blurred vision.
Drug interactions: These drugs slow down the body’s breakdown of alprazolam (Xanax) and increase its toxicity: ketoconazole, itraconazole, nefazodone, fluvoxamine and erythromycin. Carbamezapine speeds up the metabolism of alprazolam (Xanax).
Safety Taking Xanax or any drug in the benzodiazepine class is extremely hazardous. What gets prescribed for a short term very quickly becomes a long term addiction.
Is it proven to be effective? Anxiety or tension associated with the stress of everyday life usually does not require treatment with a drug. There are no studies to prong term effectiveness of this drug. Studies in anxiety disorder have lasted four months, and for panic disorder 4 to 10 weeks.
