Prescribed drug dependence and withdrawal

What it asks

What the petitioner did first

1. 29 Jun 2017
   Public Petitions Committee

   New Petitions
   1 mention
2. 7 Dec 2017
   Public Petitions Committee

   Continued Petitions
   1 mention
3. 18 Jan 2018
   Public Petitions Committee

   Continued Petitions
   2 mentions
4. 26 Apr 2018
   Public Petitions Committee

   Continued Petitions
   1 mention
5. 25 Oct 2018
   Public Petitions Committee

   Continued Petitions
   1 mention
6. 7 Mar 2019
   Public Petitions Committee

   Continued Petitions
   1 mention
7. 16 Dec 2020
   Public Petitions Committee

   Continued Petitions
   1 mention
8. 24 Mar 2021
   Public Petitions Committee

   Continued Petitions
   1 mention

1. United States79 27.7%
2. England57 20%
3. Scotland52 18.2%
4. United Kingdom37 13%
5. Canada10 3.5%
6. Australia9 3.2%
7. Ireland8 2.8%
8. Finland6 2.1%
9. Wales5 1.8%
10. New Zealand4 1.4%
11. 13 other countries18 6.3%

1. Alyne Duthie 12 Apr 2017
   Most neuroscientists no longer subscribe to the view that antidepressants correct any kind of serotonin imbalance and yet GPs are still keen to promote this view. Side effects from psychoactive drugs like antidepressants and benzodiazepines can lead to chronic ill health and too many of us struggle to find the help we need to taper and in the withdrawal period after. Recognition for the severe symptoms that can arise in withdrawal from these drugs which can be both brutal and protracted lasting in some cases months or years is long overdue. The medicalisation of the problems of society is causing untold harm to thousands and it is time we placed greater value on alternatives to this medical model.
2. Nathalie Lavallee 12 Apr 2017
   I have been injured by benzo long term use and withdrawal. 36 months off and still disable..
   This must stop!
3. Jennifer Jackson 12 Apr 2017
   Know there's SO many out here suffering like myself due to benzos and the lack of knowledge on how to safely taper off of them.I have been in complete bedridden hell since coming off of them cold turkey.Was unable to even read or write for months or process words people would say to me.I had 100s of insane symptoms from head to toe.I feel brain damaged by it and i can't believe they don't warn people about these drugs!
4. Gary Skriba 12 Apr 2017
   I've lost the best of 21 years to benzodiazepines always taken as directed. I was never warned about the horrible danger of taking it longer than 2 to 4 weeks. I am still very much disabled 45 months after ashton taper. This needs to stop!
5. Lindsay Lauerman 12 Apr 2017
   Signed
6. Aida 12 Apr 2017
   I've been hurt by Xanax, Klonopin here in the US. Still tapering in April of 2017.
7. Georgina Jones 12 Apr 2017
   I was prescribed zopiclone sleeping tablet for five weeks and became dependant and it took five months of hell to wean off
8. Jan Murphy 13 Apr 2017
   These are dangerous drugs. I was prescribed a Benzo for sleep by a pulmonary clinic nurse.
   The pamphlet from the pharmacy only said may cause drowsiness or dizziness. I didn't even stay that was a benzodiazepine or the fact that dependency with her and that would be so difficult to get off this. My life has changed because of this nasty drug. I never took more than prescribed, actually less than prescribed. My withdrawal had been difficult and painful.
9. Linda Fredrick 13 Apr 2017
   As a provider of Wellness Coaching and Recovery services I can attest to the fact that many physicians are freely prescribing highly addictive prescription drugs to individuals for minor issues which could be addressed with much less problematic options and without providing the proper due diligence such as addiction education or medication safety plans.
   After individuals have found themselves in the shame filled position of being addicted, scared and embarrassed, these same physicians are dumping them with an attitude of blame to the patient and unwillingness to be a part of the solution to the problem they created- claiming insufficient training. This must stop. Good people, good families and good communities are paying huge prices in blood and pain while others are benefitting financially.
10. Fiona French 13 Apr 2017
    I have sustained a brain injury as a result of tapering off the benzodiazepine, nitrazepam after forty years of taking it as prescribed for myoclonic epilepsy. I now realise that most of my health problems over the past 30 years were in fact side effects from that drug and not depression.
    I no longer require antidepressants after 40 years consumption as prescribed. I no longer have epilepsy. Having consulted my GP and three consultants I now realise that no doctor is willing to acknowledge in writing that my brain has been damaged as a direct result of benzodiazepine withdrawal. Some flatly deny it has anything to do with the drug despite there being no other possible explanation. I have instead been diagnosed as having depression or ME CFS or neurological functional impairment all of which serve to mask the real truth of the matter I find this totally unacceptable. Government advice to patients like me is to consult your GP. Historically benzodiazepines were prescribed to millions of patients in the UK despite mounting evidence of their addictive properties and now the same has happened with antidepressants. It is now imperative that appropriate services are provided for patients seeking to withdraw from these potentially harmful drugs to avoid long-term damage to their health. The real question is why was this situation allowed to happen again and why the lack of transparency regarding the damage done by both classes of drugs?
    Without such transparency the extent of the damage can be denied by medical bodies and government alike and patients are kept in the dark about the potential harms of these drugs on the brain and central nervous system.
11. Greg White 13 Apr 2017
    As a psychotherapist with twenty years experience working with folk on psychiatric medication, I can safely say that the only thing these drugs serve in the middle and long term, is a co-dependent relationship with 'other' and as such a medical rebuttal of the medical vow to 'do no harm'.
12. Barbara Vandeputte 13 Apr 2017
    Death by suicide ,Benzo withdrawal syndrome driven.
13. Kate 13 Apr 2017
    Please inform and support people taking and tapering from benzodiazepines and antidepressants and their loved ones! It took a year before I even realized that it was benzos causing my terrifying symptoms. Then it took another year to find someone to help me taper off of them. Most doctors didn't even believe it was the benzos, others knew but, didn't want to or know how to help.
14. Nancy 14 Apr 2017
    These types of medications need to be closely monitored. I wish my doctor would have known that taking xanax, (I took it as perscribed) for seven years is a very dangerous thing to do. There have been many people injured. Many people have lost everything, their jobs, homes, families, dignity and self respect. Just to name a few. The drug companies know these drugs a harming people. They do not care, as they are making millions upon millions of dollars off of these drugs. Please help people who have been harmed by these drugs. So others do not have to go through what we have and suffer!
15. Laura 14 Apr 2017
    I've been prescribed an antidepressant for minor work stress. After stopping it, I got so ill that I had to stop work, my hobbies, could barely leave the house. My symptoms are similar to what people with traumatic brain injury experience. I lost my income, the state benefits ran out because no doctor is willing to give me a proper diagnosis. All of this because I trusted my GP to be well informed and not to prescribe dangerous medication.
16. Dolores 14 Apr 2017
    I've been in benzo hell for four years now, as my symptoms began shortly after being prescribed Ativan. I cannot believe that doctors keep prescribing this sh*t. It's decent for a couple of days, but after that its talons dig deeper into the brain, creating all sorts of havoc. The problem is that usually no one knows what's happening until the damage is done and they want to get off the drug. Shame on doctors for prescribing benzos without compunction!! "Do no harm" is NOT the case with these drugs. And many don't recognize this. They don't know how to taper a patient, yet they certainly know how to prescribe. This is dead wrong. We cannot be left to fend for ourselves. Many of us have spent our finances because we can't work. We have lost family, friends, hobbies that we once had, our lives battling this.This can't be happening ANY LONGER. PLEASE HELP!
17. Julia Sari 14 Apr 2017
    I was prescribed a cocktail of two antidepressants and two benzodiazepines when diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at the age of 21. I trusted the field renowned expert who had given me hopes of recovery but failed to mention the well-known risks of such 'medication'. Needless to say that I became physiologically dependent without even realising it. I did manage my way out of eating disorders, resume my studies and graduate from University, but hit with 'medically unexplained exhaustion', I once again had to ask 'what is wrong with me?'. I finally questioned the medication I had been on for a decade and decided I had to come off it. Now 34, I have been tapering for over two years and a half, and have yet to go. Adding to the burden of the stigma of mental illness and psychiatric drugs, I have found no validation from medical professionals. I am on the most alienating and debilitating journey of my life with the sole support of an online community. How can this be? Sadly, my story is far from unique and can't bear to think that I will not be the last one to go through an ordeal which could be prevented through better awareness to the dangers of benzodiazepines and antidepressants. As for people who wish to withdraw safely from such drugs, dedicated support is much needed. Drug misuse organisations are absolutely not adequate for people who have become physiologically dependent on drugs taken as prescribed.
18. Diane Dunsmuir 15 Apr 2017
    I am a patient that has had significant side effects and withdrawals due to Ativan.
19. Paula 17 Apr 2017
    Benzodiazepines need to be banned!!its a world wide epidemic growing fast.way to much suffering an no support to get off this poison
20. Kathy 17 Apr 2017
    After taking these drugs as prescribed to help with insomnia for over a decade, I can't believe the absolute horror my life has become over the last 7 months. After tapering off this med the way my doctor told me to (actually a little slower because my throat closed up completely and I had to hold my dose for several weeks) my body went into complete shock. The pain I am in daily is immeasurable. I have actually lost the ability to walk without the use of another non-benzo muscle relaxer due to klonopin use. I was later told by other doctors that my muscle issues probably wouldn't be so severe if the doctor hadn't pulled me off the drug as quickly as she did. Doctors need to take accountability for the dangers of these drugs, allow patients to taper at their own pace, and acknowledge the damage these drugs have done to thousands of individuals, even when taken EXACTLY AS PRESCRIBED. 1 MG daily for 11 years, didn't up my dose or abuse it in any way. I now suffer because many doctors don't want to acknowledge that serious withdrawal effects can last months, or in some extreme cases, years. I want my life back!
21. Toni Harris 19 Apr 2017
    Coming off antidepressants gave me worse withdrawals than coming off diazepam. I found tapering just pro longed the withdrawals. I had to come off & go cold turkey as I developed tardive dystonia in my neck muscles after just 1 year of of taking several different antidepressants. I have been off them 8 weeks now & still getting terrible withdrawals. I wish I had never touched the them, they don't even work, in fact they made me worse.
22. Margaret Stratton 19 Apr 2017
    I am pleased to see someone has taken the initiative here.
23. Pauline Dove 21 Apr 2017
    This is a vital issue which needs to be addressed so that the use of these drugs and the unprecedented number of people taking them is not perpetuated by misunderstandings and re-prescribing for dependency. Medically Unexplained Symptoms is an unacceptable patient blaming exercise, for what has happened here and will only serve to exacerbate the number of people diagnosed with "mental illness
    - somatic disorders" whose symptoms can easily be explained as the effect of these drugs. This diagnosis needs to be removed as the convenient "excuse" it currently represents.
24. Sachi Yamabe 21 Apr 2017
    I am 6 years antidepressant-free and 55 months benzo-free. Withdrawal symptoms continue to be physically and mentally unbearable and unrelenting. Whether the brain and CNS damage I have sustained is permanent is equivocal. I never imagined doctors would ruin my health and then turn their backs.
    
    I was first prescribed Ativan for IBS by a family doctor 27 years ago and was never warned about any dangers. After abruptly stopping this drug many times over two years, I had worsening and new unexplained symptoms. I was eventually sent to a psychiatrist, misdiagnosed with Depression and , prescribed Zoloft and clonazepam. I was lead to believe the drugs were correcting a chemical imbalance. When I learned I had Celiac Disease, I changed my diet, felt a bit better and decided to come off the drugs once and for all, Zoloft first. For two years, unmasked benzo withdrawal, tolerance and interdose withdrawal was misidentified by the psychiatrist as Zoloft withdrawal, until someone perceptive, in an online support community for AD withdrawal, asked if I was on a benzo. I started researching, raised the dose and symptoms reduced. It was a shocking revelation. I took the Ashton Manual to the psychiatrist expecting recognition and support with a taper and it was suggested I explore my anxiety. He stopped helping me.
    
    The dangers of benzodiazepines have been well-documented for 60 years! And we now know the same about antidepressants. Doctors, pharmacists, the medical community, policy makers, governing bodies, and governments have a moral responsibility to protect and help victims of this global iatrogenic medical disaster. Please, do what is right.
25. Anne 23 Apr 2017
    At 23 I had so much hope, I was from a working class background and the first child to go to University ( Exeter ) I also trained as a Teacher. The state funded my education. I went into teaching full of vision and hope. I also got married to my childhood sweetheart at the age of 20 having met him at sweet sixteen. After a year in teaching I got stressed because I was being bullied by my headteacher......also by 23 my Teacher husband was not quite so patient with this stressed individual. One day I had a full blown panic attack and went to the GP...he gave me some ' Tablets to take my headaches away' and muttered a condition called anxiety and depression....whoopee I was not going crazy this stress thing had a name....he also said I might benefit from talking to somone...This seemed an Excellent idea.......The someone was a consultant Psychiatrist...much older than me and oh so kind........but he too upped my headache tablets ( later I found it was Ativan ) and added some betablockers and anti-depressents....oh the heaven of the fog......I was able mutely to exist...did not talk much or have sex but hey....I even got away from the evil boss....so age 26....New job.....maybe wanting babies I tried to stop taking my headache tablets.......Oh No the panic attacks returned......I might be going crazy again....But the nice psychiatrist kept talking to me hell he even hugged me and told me he loved me oh and those headache tablets just kept a coming......Meanwhile my husband started to stand over me to make sure I took the Pill. He was not thinking about babies.....age 28 he abruptly left me and then divorced me on the grounds I quote persisted in the notion of being a mother despite being on Tranquiller Also more of MY unreasonable behaviour was due to the fact he was denied his conjugal rights .........My libido was out the door.........The kind Psychiatrists reaction to me being left an overnight tripling of the Ativan dose....which I have to fess did enable me to c
26. Anne 23 Apr 2017
    crawl into the classroom.......so after spending a fortune of educating me and enabling me to become a teacher WHY through no fault of my own did I lose my marriage and was unable to truly fulfil my considerable potential. I was lucky enough to meet someone else who loved me and he has stood by me for 25 years as I have battled benzo addiction and since 2005 Anti-depressant addiction though I have not been clinically depressed since 2009. I was shockingly discriminated against by the police and the courts who illegally got hold of my medical records in 2010........a tale of woe indeed.......This must not blight another person's future...I class myself as lucky my brain does function,,,but how I mourn for what could have been.......Maybe I could have been a headteacher or a politician.......Benzo addiction does severely limit career options......I have never claimed any state benefits and have paid taxes for 35 years....WHY will the GP NHS or Pharma companies not even allow me a tapering kit, liquid medication to help with withdrawal let along informed advice and support. Thank God for all the wonderful signatories above........SME ( A subject matter expert through self educatation and 32 years of lived experience.........
27. Dorothy Baird 23 Apr 2017
    I'm a psychotherapist working out of the Human Givens approach and often see people who are suffering from difficulties that could be directly attributed to the antidepressants they've been prescribed. Often they've been given the medication to help with difficulties in life, such as anxiety or bereavement or trauma. It is far more effective to help the person develop skills to work through these difficulties, or to resolve previous trauma than give pills which can disempower them. When they try and come off the pills, their symptoms reappear, so the GP ups the dose, rather than attributing the return of symptoms to withdrawal. Much more needs to be done and I hope the Scottish Parliament will look at more empowering and effective ways to deal with mental health problems as well as offering support to those who unwittingly find themselves in the grip of withdrawal. This is not a gripe against GPs who are overworked and have only 10 minutes and huge waiting lists for counselling services. If the pills actually work, why are there so many people with mental health problems?
28. Mark Fisher 25 Apr 2017
    This is scandalous and barbaric. If this is modern healthcare you can keep it.
29. Kathryn Egan 25 Apr 2017
    I'd have a lifetime of things to comment as the damage has occurred over a period of more than half my life. The damage is organic in origin as in physical impairment and remains to this day as I fight to regain a life. I'd comment more but actually I'm to darn sick while going through the withdrawal from these, which I now refer to as toxic chemicals. How long before recognition and received help? Will it take as long as the thalidomide travesty did? This is more than equally as devastating and more than equally occurring in its numbers affected.
30. John Mills 26 Apr 2017
    Theres only one thing that needs to happen, first before anything else take away the power that allows psychiatrists to forcefully poison people, and after that happens, nothing anyone says to power over anyone with their opinions, poisons imaginings matters, that's the bottom line, all the argument ,all the despair, all the tears and all the sadness, cant be imposed on anyone, by anyone, everything else is an argument because of that, one law, every government in the world, gives these people, legislates that they can, thats got to go. and then when thats gone, every psychiatric facility in the world has to open turn, one of its three or four, your mad, Im gonna poison you wards, whether you want it or not, into a re education, withdrawal, recovery ward, first for the street drug psychosed their turning into lifetime neuroleptic junkies, when their not even supposed to have drugs for what they are suffering, from, for up to, ten days full sleeps, and only if they havent slept can they only be given sleepers, and of course for all the sad poor people they have traumatised and turned into debilitated drug addicts for their own profits and egos, but first thing first, take away the right to drug, and replace it with the right to refuse. end of story, because all the stories and all the arguments hinge off that happening.
31. Vaisakh 27 Apr 2017
    All support from India for this noble cause
32. Estelle 28 Apr 2017
    My mother overdosed on her psychiatric medication and died. Passage of time makes no difference to the grief I continue to feel. More holistic healing support much needed for people in distress rather than horrific toxic drugs !!!
33. Aviva Sheb'a 28 Apr 2017
    I have witnessed the serious delltrimental effects of psychiatric medications on dozens of people I've known over more than forty years. The problem seems to be growing rather than diminishing. Thank you for taking on this challenge, Scotland. I hope your petition leads to success there and in the rest of the world. There is a place for medication, but ubiquity is not it.
34. Jackie Stanton 28 Apr 2017
    Please include the anti-psychotics too?
    .
35. Ann marcos 28 Apr 2017
    I was prescribed drugs to treat so called mental health that caused me serious side effects.
36. Martin McManus 29 Apr 2017
    Psychiatry is rotten at its core and standard psychiatric practice leads to drug dependence through creating a chemical imbalance, worse outcomes for people than non-treatment, the stigmatising of normal distress, more jobs created for psychiatrists and their affiliates, more physical health complications and huge profits for the pharmaceutical industry.
37. Sandra Cairns 29 Apr 2017
    I had to watch my husband die slowly and in a sad manner as he deteriorated after being forced onto depo antipsychotics for years rather then address the severe ptsd he had developed after a bad fall and near death experience he suffered in a work injury. It is time to stop allowing governments certainly in the commonwealth using psychiatric drugs to destroy people they have wronged rather then compensate them or get them back to prework injuries conditions. When the medical profession works hand in hand with pharmaceutical companies and allow themselves to be used as a weapon against society it is time for that society to stop them
38. Bradford Hutchinson 29 Apr 2017
    This petition tells MY STORY, too! I call it "IATROGENIC NEUROLEPSIS", and it's the untold PhRMA (U.S.) scandal of our time. I was given clonazepam (Klonopin") .5mg., 3x day, with a "2-level", or "2-tier" taper down, as a long term goal.(.5mg.3x, .5mg.2x, .5mg.1x...) This was after 20 yrs. of multi-psych drug
    given, sometimes against my will. I also became, and remain, alcohol-free. My recovery went slowly, but very well, with always the goal of re-employment and FULL independence off disability pension. I almost completed college work. The "system" here in the USA is VERY broken, despite what media and medics would have you believe. While MY STORY is also told in this petition, there is much more, and worse, besides. So PLEASE consider favorably this petition. I endorse it FULLY.
39. Vanessa 29 Apr 2017
    I know how dangerous antidepressants are, especially for young people. I am lucky that my daughter was in a residential unit for the many months that her so-called professional doctors insisted on her taking these drugs. Once she was able to get off them, 2 years later, she has made incredible progress. The system is dangerous!
40. Shannon Bebb 29 Apr 2017
    I have suffered similarly in the US. Please lead the way in stopping these horrific practices.
41. Sonja 29 Apr 2017
    Free from all mental medications for 7+ years
42. Edward Corscaden 30 Apr 2017
    Very sad, tragic state of affairs. Money talks. Health care is corrupt
43. Fred Abbe 30 Apr 2017
    Developing poisons and forcing them into people's bodies and calling it health care is a crime against humanity. The individual's right to refuse must be honored . There is more pseudo science in psychiatry then the world can stand.
44. Christina 2 May 2017
    Drugs are terrible and addicting. It ruins both quality and quantity of life.
45. Liz Wenn 3 May 2017
    It is not just antidepressants and benzodiazepines that cause medically unexplained symptoms or MUS. Adverse drug reactions, ADRs, from many drugs are swept under the carpet because, in my view, ADR reporting procedures and the MHRA are not fit for purpose. Doctors routinely fail to report side effects to the MHRA, perhaps they are under pressure not to report. The rate of reporting is shameful, for example, a GP, on average, may only report an ADR twice in their career.
    The psychiatric diagnosis of MUS represents an appalling dumbing down of medicine. Doctor error and lack of training, testing restrictions and testing error, Hickams dictum rather than Occams razor, rare diseases and presentations, unknown and poorly elucidated diseases, these are no longer given due consideration when patients present with MUS. I am sure that drug ADRs represent a major cause of MUS, and MUS patients risk more horrible side effects if they are put on antidepressant medication to try to treat their supposed functional or somatization disorder.
    The UK government and NHS England are encouraging the diagnosis of MUS across England and factoring it in to NHS funding and commissioning to deliver their efficiency savings via cuts to outpatient clinics and investigations such as radiography. They are promoting cheap, rather than good quality and ethical, CBT psychotherapy for these patients via the IAPT programme to achieve savings to the NHS of almost eight times the money spent out on the CBT programme. It is claimed that half or more of outpatient appointments are due to MUS, an idea of the scale of savings that the government may have set its sights on. The Medical Establishment is keen to extend this Orwellian model to Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland and so effect privatization of the whole NHS by the back door, as desperate patients pay for private consultations to find the true causes of their MUS. This IS a NATIONAL SCANDAL.
46. Merry Citoli 4 May 2017
    I have a similar organization here in the U.S. and would be interested in getting a petition going here as well. We offer support services for people tapering off these meds and who are in recovery.
47. benzogirl 4 May 2017
    Benzos, taken as prescribed ruined 15 year of my prime life. Something should be don about this dangerous class of drugs. Yikes! It's horrible.
48. Kirsten 4 May 2017
    I am now dependent on antidepressants and was given a new erroneous diagnosis of schizophrenia after the doctors took me off an antipsychotic too quickly which made me develop withdrawal psychosis despite taking it for OCD and having no previous episodes of it. Doctors are too quick to prescribe drugs and too negligent in their rate of discontinuation of meds.
49. Soili Takkala 5 May 2017
    We have a corresponding withdrawal group for SSRI users in Finland. Our main focus is to provide peer support for those struggling with withdrawal symptoms. Gradually, we are also trying to draw public attention to the problem and bring about a change in the public health system.I wish best of luck to your campaign and hope to co-operate with you around these issues in the future!
50. R Cox 5 May 2017
    Having been harmed by these drugs (inappropriately Rx for a non mental health condition) I'm happy to sign this petition and raise awareness of the issues described.