APA guidelines on benzodiazepine use

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APA has a link (below) with guidelines for multiple disorders, though some of those guidelines are quite outdated. They do provide guidelines for PTSD, OCD, and panic disorder, but do NOT provide guidelines on this page (or any other I can find) for GAD recommendations. However, in their PTSD guidelines they do make the statement:

"Benzodiazepines cannot be recommended as monotherapy for PTSD patients, despite their proven efficacy in generalized anxiety disorder."

So you can extrapolate that at least some people there feel it's a valid treatment or at least were okay with someone's opinion that it is.

 
its interesting that such a major topic has relatively vague guidelines from the APA.

yea i went through those and as you said, nothing really for GAD. I think they have taken the approach that is similiar to sedative hypnotics approach via american academy of sleep which is what I call, a "shoulder shrug" and confused look.
 
Well if they don’t address things directly it gives us leeway to prescribe how we see fit which is a good thing and provides less ammunition for lawyers to come after us
 
The APA guidelines are very out of date because they decided a long time ago to get out of the recommendation business fearing liability. They stopped supporting "expert consensus (consensi?)" and such over a decade ago. This isn't a big loss as it amounted to mostly a group of senior academics who decide how to do things with little evidence other than "because this is how I do this".
 
I make a living getting people out of Benzo trouble. This wouldn't cramp my style any.
 
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