Shade Kyla N, Ritvo Alexis D, Silvernail Bernard, Finlayson A J Reid, Bressi Jolene E, Foster D E, Martin Ian J, Piper Christi, Martin Peter R
University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 28;20(8):e0330277. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330277. eCollection 2025.
Benzodiazepine acute withdrawal syndrome is well known, but the long-term neurological consequences of benzodiazepine exposure are much less familiar. A scoping review was conducted of electronic databases for studies that reported on patient outcomes four or more weeks after complete cessation of benzodiazepine use. Forty-six results were retrieved in total, some of which provided signals for protracted symptoms, often reported as incidental findings, and others that showed benzodiazepine discontinuation was beneficial. Some overlap occurred in the outcomes, but these two groups of studies suggest that the benefits of benzodiazepine discontinuation for many patients tended to obscure the more prolonged, severe, and sometimes debilitating symptoms that persisted for months and years in a subpopulation of patients. The prevalence or trajectory of these enduring symptoms could not be determined from these studies. Further elucidation of the potential neurotoxicity of benzodiazepines is needed to better understand protracted symptoms and their treatment. Clinicians, patients, and the healthcare system must be cognizant of the risks of benzodiazepine exposure beyond two to four weeks.
苯二氮䓬类药物急性戒断综合征广为人知,但苯二氮䓬类药物暴露的长期神经学后果却鲜为人知。我们对电子数据库进行了一项范围综述,以查找那些报告了完全停用苯二氮䓬类药物四周或更长时间后患者结局的研究。总共检索到46项结果,其中一些结果提示了持续症状,这些症状通常作为偶然发现被报告,而其他结果则表明停用苯二氮䓬类药物是有益的。结果存在一些重叠,但这两组研究表明,对于许多患者而言,停用苯二氮䓬类药物的益处往往掩盖了在一部分患者中持续数月甚至数年的更持久、更严重且有时使人衰弱的症状。这些持续性症状的患病率或发展轨迹无法从这些研究中确定。需要进一步阐明苯二氮䓬类药物的潜在神经毒性,以更好地了解持续性症状及其治疗方法。临床医生、患者和医疗系统必须认识到苯二氮䓬类药物暴露超过两到四周的风险。