HWN Suggests

Valium’s Contribution to Our New Normal

Valium was, significantly, one of the first psychoactive drugs to be used on a large scale on people who were basically fine. It has since been surpassed by other drugs, like the popular tranquilizer Xanax. But with the pharmaceutical giant Roche announcing that it will soon close the Nutley, N.J., plant where Valium and its predecessor, Librium, were developed, it’s a good time to remember how revolutionary these “minor tranquilizers” were half a century ago. These were the drugs that gave us a new way to slay our inner demons, medicating our way to a happier life.

read full article

Articles of Interest

A Host of Anxiety Drugs, Begat by Valium

One of the earliest benzodiazepines, Valium was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1963 as a treatment for anxiety, and it would become not only the country's best-selling drug, but an American cultural icon. Referred to knowingly in Woody Allen movies, enshrined as "Mother's Little Helper" in the Rolling Stones song, condemned as poisonous in best-selling books, Valium reached the height of its popularity in 1978, a year when Americans consumed 2.3 billion of the little yellow pills. But by the 1980's its reputation for creating abuse and withdrawal problems was well known, and the new selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like Prozac were widely considered better treatments for anxiety and panic disorders.

An Anxious History of Valium

What a drag it is getting old—or is it? Valium's heyday is long past, but it lives on as a cultural icon

Brain’s Own ‘Valium’ Discovered

We’ve known the brain produces its own heroin-like substances since the 1970s. But what about Valium? Although researchers have searched for such anti-anxiety chemicals for decades, it’s only now that they may finally have found one.

Diazepam Is Killing Scotland's Drug-Using Poor

Thanks to the majority of late-20th-century American fiction, many of us have the mistaken belief that Valium is the preserve of the clinically bored, middle-aged housewife, when really the drug is killing Scotland's poorest men.

Fake Valium is killing those who buy pills online, charity warns

Criminal gangs are selling fake Valium online at a fraction of the cost of genuine tablets, leading people to take potentially lethal doses of illicitly-produced drugs, according to a leading addiction treatment service.

The Benefits of Valium

In my work as a psychiatrist, I find the use of these medications incredibly beneficial at certain times. While Ms. Henig makes some good points about the pharmaceutical industry, she minimizes the suffering of many of my patients. I am writing this letter in their defense.

Valium Can Be Harder to Withdraw from Than Heroin

Benzos might soften the blow of the odd comedown, but trust me: The more you rely on it, the more powerful it becomes.

Valium, the ‘safer choice’ that led to dependence and addiction

In the quest for a safer alternative, American chemist Leo Sternbach created the first compound in the benzodiazepines class of drugs, methaminodiazepoxide. This led to the release of diazepam (Valium) in 1963, considered to be safer than barbiturates. Over the next decade, it became the most prescribed drug in the United States. Negative effects were slow to be recognised and widely acknowledged. This took nearly two decades after the description of the withdrawal syndrome. Only then did prescription rates begin to fall. The good news is there is now greater caution and questioning about the potential unintended effects of new drugs.