Study, Sep/18:Risk for athletes: when the desire to sleep becomes a nightmare...

The full title of this Italian/Spanish study is "A risk for athletes: when the desire to sleep becomes a nightmare. A brief case report on benzodiazepine addiction".

 

I can only access a small part of it, but if anyone can access the full study, I hope they will share it here.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30251160

 

A risk for athletes: when the desire to sleep becomes a nightmare. A brief case report on benzodiazepine addiction

 

   

    Thomas Zandonai

     

    Fabio Lugoboni

       

    Lorenzo Zamboni

     

 

    1.Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), Department of Experimental PsychologyUniversity of GranadaGranadaSpain

    2.Department of Internal Medicine, Unit of Addiction MedicineHospital Trust of VeronaVeronaItaly

 

Letter to Editor

 

First Online: 24 September 2018

 

 

Sleep affects multiple physiological and psychological pathways and is fundamental for exercise performance. Several publications have recently highlighted the importance of sleep among elite athletes (Gupta et al. 2017; Kirschen et al. 2018). Competition and training are associated with an increased risk of insomnia. Particularly in endurance disciplines, training days can result in increased daytime fatigue and reduced total sleep time (Gupta et al. 2017). Moreover, in modern sports, athletes’ sleep patterns often have to be adjusted due to travel and scheduling requirements, and this can trigger insomnia issues (Baird and Asif 2018). The benzodiazepines (BZD) could be a “suitable” drug class for tackling insomnia in athletes (Lader 2011). Many countries now have recommendations stipulating that BZD may be used in the short term (2–4 weeks) (Lader 2011), but unfortunately, these recommendations are widely disregarded by patients and even by doctors. Misuse of BZD can cause learning,...

 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-018-5047-9

Horrible idea, I know ...

 

On the very short term it may work. But when you chronicall activate the stress system, certain pathways in the CNS AND use benzodiazepines you can get in serious trouble ...

 

Here ya go, Dizzy Dame, you may need to click "reload" to refresh the page.

 

https://sci-hub.tw/10.1007/s00213-018-5047-9

 

"... his diary showed that he was taking a bottle a day (20 ml), the equivalent of 250 mg of diazepam."

 

Great stuff, abcd! I'll have a look. What a scary quote you pulled! Holy Moly!

I haven't heard much about the flumazenil treatments but I suspect that's not the end of his story with benzos or their effect on him.  They seemed to wrap it up so neatly with the continuation of clonazepam for 2 months after discharge.  9 years of benzo use with dosages that high and the guy walks away all fine and dandy after a 7 day stay and 2 months of 2mg clonazepam?    Hardly think so!

I tend to agree, seltzerer.

Was it Luca Paolini? He said he feels "more relaxed, balanced, and calm" now. http://cyclingquotes.com/news/paolini_admits_sleeping_pill_addiction/

 

After all that he took??

It looks like it might be him, Terry. How did you know?

I knew it was an Italian study, and I just put in the facts: Italian professional cyclist, 38, Verona, etc. He popped up.

 

I still wonder how he got through it all...

 

I love cycling, but I never watch it. I'd be too jealous!

 

Glad he's okay now. As far as I understand from my pal who's totally into cycling, the competitive cycling world is intense. I'm wondering if any of those guys are drug free.

Nice he's better now and still cycling.

They like the adrenaline high. I was reading of another cyclist who died of cocaine poisoning.

 

I'm glad he's well, too!

How sad. Cycling is such a beautiful thing...but not with drugs.