Am J Psychiatry 1977; 134:656-658
Copyright © 1977 by American Psychiatric Association
The role of benzodiazepines in nonpsychiatric medical practice
L Lasagna
The benzodiazepines are widely prescribed by many physicians for patients
with depression, anxiety reaction, circulatory disorders, digestive
disorders, tension headache, and pain in chest and back. According to
various studies there is reason to believe that benzodiazepines not only
possess the anxiolytic effects universally attributed to them but may also
ameliorate somatic complaints affecting such systems as the cardiovascular
and the gastrointestinal. twhether the bensodiazepines affect organ systems
known to be linked in important pathophysiological ways to the nervous
system deserves further study.
