Treatment Centers for Benzodiazepines (“Rehab”)

Unlike most other drugs, benzodiazepine withdrawal requires a customized plan for each patient. The unfortunate truth is that most addiction centers treat benzodiazepine withdrawal with the same types of programs they use for withdrawal from many other types of drugs. Avoid a center that uses a 30-day withdrawal program for benzodiazepines. Withdrawal over such a short period can work for some patients, but it is not possible to predict which patients will have such success without harm. Addiction treatment centers tend to address benzodiazepine tapers with fixed protocols and rapid reductions, when, in fact, a slow, flexible process is far more likely to be successful and safer. Look for a center that has a specialized longer-term program for benzodiazepine withdrawal. Please contact us if you find a center that you can recommend.

If you live in the San Francisco bay area, you may have access to a clinic which has a flexible patient-led program for benzodiazepine withdrawal.  This is the Stanford Health Care Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic in Palo Alto.  Full disclosure:  Anna Lembke, MD, staff psychiatrist at the clinic, is also an advisor for the Alliance.

Help Stop the Suffering

The Alliance for Benzodiazepine Best Practices is dedicated to reducing the number of people who wind up being dependent on benzodiazepines and Z-drugs due to misguided prescribing practices. You can help prevent other people from having to go through a difficult withdrawal. Your donations run our programs and are fully tax deductible.