The drugs are also non-specific: they act on multiple subunits of GABA, which govern different actions, such as anxiety, restfulness, motor control and cognition. That means a benzodiazepine user needs to keep ramping up the drug’s dosage to trigger the same calming effect of GABA. Tolerance to the drugs is thought to develop because benzodiazepines weaken the response of receptors in the brain. Even though the drugs’ addictive properties have now become clear, they remain widely available and are often prescribed for longer than the recommended 2–4 weeks.
Initially, benzodiazepines were hailed as a medical miracle, and they soon became the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the world. The drugs can trigger that GABA rush in minutes, allowing a user to feel calmer almost immediately. GABA release makes people calm and sleepy. The Food and Drug Administration approved Librium, the first-ever benzodiazepine, in 1960 and Valium in 1963.īenzodiazepines latch onto a receptor in the brain, which then activates a neighbouring neurotransmitter known as GABA. Finally in 1956, after adding methylamine (a colourless gas derived from ammonia) to one compound, he produced a white powder that made mice sleepy and calm. Over several years, he tested some 40 BZDs but all proved ineffective. In the 1950s, the late Leo Sternbach – a research chemist – began tinkering with an unknown class of compounds: the BZDs, or benzodiazepines. After that, doctors began prescribing anti-psychotic drugs known as phenothiazines, but those drugs triggered severe side-effects such as uncontrollable facial movements. Then came barbiturates, which were also written off as too addictive. Previously, patients were given opiates – with predictably disastrous results.
Since the late 1800s, drug manufacturers had been hunting for a new, non-addictive anti-anxiety medication. The words are a social commentary on benzodiazepines, which had just hit the market a few years prior and become wildly popular, particularly among American housewives. So begins the Stones’ 1966 hit ‘Mother’s Little Helper’, a dark and catchy paean to Valium. She goes running for the shelter of a mother’s little helper. Mother needs something today to calm her down ‘Kids are different today,’ I hear ev'ry mother say
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