Death Grip (42 page)

  
4
. Richard Restak, 149.

  
5
. Paul Foxman, 147.

  
6
. Aleksandar Hemon, “The Aquarium.”
The New Yorker,
June 13, 2011, 50–62.

  
7
. Richard Restak, 192.

  
8
. Andrea Tone, 27.

  
9
. Andrea Tone, 135.

10
. Andrea Tone, 137–138.

11
. Andrea Tone, 153.

12
. Andrea Tone, ix.

13
. Richard Restak, 191.

14
. Andrea Tone, ix.

15
. Richard Restak, 191.

16
. Peter Breggin, 241.

17
. Lauren Cox, “Tranquilizer Detox Withdrawal Can Last Years,”
http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=6354685
.

18
. Robert Whitaker, 132.

19
. IMS Health, “Top 20 U.S. Pharmaceutical Products by Dispensed Prescriptions,”
http://www.imshealth.com/deployedfiles/imshealth/Global/Content/StaticFile/Top_Line_Data/2010_Top_Products_by_RX.pdf
.

20
. Stephen M. Stahl, M.D., Ph.D., “Don't Ask, Don't Tell, but Benzodiazepines Are Still the Leading Treatments for Anxiety Disorder.”
The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry,
September 2002 63:9.

21
. Heather Ashton, M.D., “Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw,”
http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzcha01.htm
.

22
. Andrea Tone, 166.

23
. Heather Ashton.

24
. Richard Restak, 190.

25
. Heather Ashton.

26
. Andrea Tone, 167.

27
. Jack Hobson-Dupont,
The Benzo Book
:
Getting Safely off Tranquilizers
(Nantucket, MA: Essex Press, 2006), 39.

28
. Heather Ashton.

29
. Heather Ashton.

30
. Richard Restak, 153.

31
. Heather Ashton.

32
. Heather Ashton, “Risks of dependence on benzodiazepine drugs: a major problem of long term treatment,”
www.benzo.org.uk/ashrisks.htm
.

Chapter Seven

  
1
. Heather Ashton, “Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw,”
http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzcha01.htm
.

  
2
. Heather Ashton, “Toxicity and Adverse Consequences of Benzodiazepine Use,”
Psychiatric Annals,
(March 1995): 25:3.

  
3
. Ibid.

Chapter Eight

  
1
. Heather Ashton, “The Ashton Manual Supplement, 2011,”
www.benzo.org.uk/ashsupp11.htm
.

  
2
. “Medication/Drug Usage During Benzodiazepine Withdrawal and Recovery,”
www.bcnc.org.uk/drugs.html
.

  
3
. Heather Ashton, “Risks of dependence on benzodiazepine drugs: a major problem of long term treatment,”
www.benzo.org.uk/ashrisks.htm
.

  
4
. Heather Ashton, “Benzodiazepine Withdrawal: Outcome in 50 Patients.”
British Journal of Addiction
(1987), 82, 655–671.

  
5
. Ibid.

  
6
. Heather Ashton, “The diagnosis and management of benzodiazepine dependence.”
Current Opinion in Psychiatry
, 2005, 18:249–255.

  
7
. Heather Ashton, “Guidelines for the Rational use of Benzodiazepines: When and What to Use.”
Drugs
48 (1994) 1: 25–40.

Part Three: The Last Milligram

Chapter Nine

  
1
. Ben Wallace-Wells, “Bitter Pill.”
Rolling Stone,
February 5, 2009.

  
2
. Ibid.

  
3
. Matthew Herper, “The Truly Staggering Cost of Inventing New Drugs,”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/02/22/the-truly-staggering-cost-of-inventing-new-drugs-the-print-version/
.

  
4
. Irving Kirsch, 50.

  
5
. Irving Kirsch, 39.

  
6
. Irving Kirsch, 47.

  
7
. Daniel Carlat, 125.

  
8
. Ibid., 109.

  
9
. Ibid., 125.

10
. Ibid., 130.

11
. Marcia Angell, “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption.”
The New York Review of Books
,
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/jan/15/drug-companies-doctorsa-story-of-corruption/
.

12
. Daniel Carlat, 15.

13
. “U.S. adults remain naïve about prescription drugs.”
BMJ
2011; 343: d5798.

14
. Daniel Carlat, 165–166.

15
. Daniel Carlat, 165.

16
. Peter Breggin, 198.

17
.
http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html#2005
.

18
. David Healy,
Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression
(New York: New York University Press, 2004), 14–15.

19
. David Healy, 15.

20
. Heather Ashton, “Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw.”

21
.
http://www.benzo.org.uk/perrott11.htm#ray
.

22
. Jack Hobson-Dupont, 19.

Chapter Ten

  
1
.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/obit/2006/11/william_styron_19252006.html
.

  
2
. William Styron, 71.

Chapter Eleven

  
1
. Heather Ashton, “Protracted Withdrawal from Benzodiazepines: The Post-Withdrawal Syndrome,”
Psychiatric Annals
(March 1995) 25:3.

  
2
. Ibid.

Epilogue

1
. Daniel Carlat, 77.

2
. Marcia Angell, “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?”

The New York Review of Books;
www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/
.

3
. Irving Kirsch, “Antidepressants: The Emperor's New Drugs?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irving-kirsch-phd/antidepressants-the-emper_b_442205.html
.

4
. Irving Kirsch,
The Emperor's New Drugs,
10–11.

5
. Ibid.

6
. Ibid., 13.

7
. Heather Ashton, “Overprescribing of Benzodiazepines: Problems and Resolutions,”
http://psychmedaware.org/OverprescribingBenzodiazepines.html
.

8
. Peter Breggin, 12.

9
. Daniel Carlat, 43.

10
. Jon Ronson, “The Kids Are Not Alright.”
New Scientist,
June 4, 2011, 44–47.

11
. Daniel Carlat, 54.

12
. Robert Whitaker, 270.

13
. Marcia Angell, “The Illusions of Psychiatry,”
The New York Review of Books,
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/illusions-of-psychiatry
.

14
. “Many authors of psychiatry bible have industry ties,”
New Scientist,
March 17, 2012, 4.
www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328563.900-many-authors-of-psychiatry-bible-have-industry-ties.html
.

15
. It can be found at:
http://www.benzo.org.uk/ashsupp11.htm
.

 

About the Author

MATT SAMET
is an accomplished longtime rock climber and former editor in chief of
Climbing
magazine. He is the author of
Climbing Dictionary
. Samet lives with his wife and their son in Colorado.

The author is neither a physician nor a medical professional. Readers should not view the information presented in this book as medical advice or as a substitute for medical care.

DEATH GRIP.
Copyright © 2013 by Matt Samet. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Jacket design by Rob Grom.

Cover photograph of Matt Samet © Ethan Hill; carabinet and rope © Alamy.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Samet, Matt.

    Death grip: a climber's escape from benzo madness / Matt Samet.

            p. cm.

    ISBN 978-1-250-00423-9 (hardcover)

    ISBN 978-1-250-02236-3 (e-book)

  1.  Samet, Matt.   2.  Mountaineers—United States—Biography.   3.  Mountaineers—United States—Psychology.   4.  Mountaineers—United States—Mental health.   5.  Benzodiazepine abuse—United States.   I.  Title.

    GV199.92.S295A3 2013

    796.522092—dc23

eISBN 9781250022363

2012037798

First Edition: February 2013

*
Although I often took the generic form of the drug, clonazepam, I refer to it by its brand name in this book to reflect the vernacular usage among psychiatrists and patients.

*
Here, again, although I often took the generic form of the drug, lorazepam, I refer to it by its brand name to reflect the vernacular usage among psychiatrists and patients.