Lebanon’s health ministry announced that it will limit the sale of tranquilizers and anti-anxiety pills, reported the Daily Star newspaper on Thursday.
According to one study, inadequate or non-existent drug-sales regulations, combined with the deepening postwar economic stagnation, have developed one of the highest per-capita consumption of benzodiazepines a family of tranquilizing and sleep inducing psychotropic drugs that includes Xanax, Ativan, Lexonatil, and Valium, said the paper.
"The general population thinks these are soft medications. This is a big mistake," said Wadih Naja, one of a group of psychiatrists who conducted a study of benzodiazepine use and dependence.
The study, said the paper, was funded by St. Joseph University and is the only one of its kind in the region.
Conducted on a nationwide sample population and published in a Swedish journal last year, the study found that 9.6 percent of the population used benzodiazepines regularly.
Of these, 50.2 percent were addicted, the paper added – Albawaba.com
