Aboriginal women at risk of over-prescription of drug

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When women seek help from physicians for feelings of anxiety, depression or insomnia connected to their life experiences, the result is often a prescription for benzodiazepines, a central nervous system depressant shown to have significant side effects, including memory and learning impairment, depression, emotional blunting and paradoxical aggression. Benzodiazepines are also highly addictive.

Researchers are increasingly documenting that older Aboriginal women are being over-prescribed benzo-diazepines, which is putting them at significant risk, reports the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health.

Benzodiazepines are often prescribed to women coping with difficult life circumstances, such as illness, physical pain or adjustment to a major life change. For Aboriginal women, these problems are compounded by the legacy of colonization, higher rates of poverty, violence, single parenting, widowhood and disability.

The correlation between trauma and abuse and diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), the mental health problem most frequently diagnosed among residential school survivors, can also place Aboriginal seniors at risk for benzodiazepine use. PSTD is also found among survivors of battering and sexual violence, which Aboriginal women experience at three times the rate of non-Aboriginal women and men.

Benzodiazepines are meant for short-term use, but studies have shown that many continue using them for at least a year. A recent study in the west of benzodiazepine use in First Nations residents found that women accounted for almost two-thirds of benzodiazepine prescriptions. The average number of prescriptions received by clients was 7.7 per year, well beyond low-risk thresholds.

Researchers at the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health have recently completed two reports that provide insight into the prescription of benzodiazepines to older First Nations and Inuit women and men. The reports conclude that more research is urgently needed.