On Monday, March 3rd, 2025, the American Society for Addiction Medicine (ASAM) in partnership with 10 medical and professional societies published the "Joint Clinical Practice Guideline of Benzodiazepine Tapering."
Funded by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), this document offers information on strategies to help clinicians determine whether tapering benzodiazepine medications may be appropriate for a given patient, and, if so, how to taper them.
The Lived Experience Panel
The founder of uneven, D E Foster, has been involved in the development of this documentation for over two years now as a member of the Patients with Lived Experience (PWLE) panel. This panel included several leaders in the benzodiazepine support community from organizations such as the Alliance for Benzodiazepine Best Practices, Benzodiazepine Information Coalition (BIC), and others.
Furthermore, our dear friend and former medical director of BIC, the late Dr. Christy Huff, is also recognized in the document for her contributions and her legacy as a benzo advocate.
A Significant Step Foreword
The PWLE panel recognizes that this document represents a major advancement in the initiative to increase awareness regarding the long-term effects of benzodiazepine use and appropriate deprescribing techniques. This panel advocated for significant changes in this documentation and several were incorporated in its final version.
Additional changes advocated by the PWLE panel involve recognizing physical dependence to benzodiazepines (separate from SUD), acknowledging Benzodiazepine-Induced Neurological Dysfunction (BIND), and lowering the recommended tapering rate to 5-10%.
But, perhaps the real turning point here for the benzodiazepine-affected patient is the official acknowledgment by major medical associations of the long-term, negative effects of benzodiazepines.
Now patients have an acknowledged clinical practice guideline thy can refer to and affirm, "this is real."
Nonetheless, there are still notable concerns in the guideline. These include the recommendations for inpatient detox in certain situations and the excessive dependence on adjunctive medications.
Although this guideline is a significant step forward, we must remain vigilant in pushing for its ongoing improvement. And we will.
More Info Coming Soon
In the coming weeks, uneven (Easing Anxiety) will produce additional content regarding this guideline including podcast episodes, Q&A sessions within the uneven community, social media posts, and much more.
Please look for this additional content on our website at unevenlife.net, or within the uneven community at uneven.life.
References
American Society for Addiction Medicine (ASAM). "The Joint Clinical Practice Guideline on Benzodiazepine Tapering: Considerations When Benzodiazepine Risks Outweigh Benefits." March 4, 2025. https://www.asam.org/quality-care/clinical-guidelines/benzodiazepine-tapering.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "FDA requiring Boxed Warning updated to improve safe use of benzodiazepine drug class." September 23, 3030. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-requiring-boxed-warning-updated-improve-safe-use-benzodiazepine-drug-class.
All of the above news is very exciting and hopeful, thank you D, for your continued dedication to finding answers to our community s’ challenges.
Unfortunately, this is yet another thing that someone who has opted out of all Social Media sites, due to the dangerous results of being hacked, , cannot participate in.
A “.pdf” link would solve this, but so be it. Thank you anyway.