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Benzodiazepine addiction and child sexual abuse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Bisa Haeger*
Affiliation:
The London Hospital, London E1 1BB
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There is now an extensive literature on benzodiazepines (over 18,400 publications since 1966), particularly regarding their addictive potential (Feely, 1988). The importance of this finding lies in prescribing as well as in the treatment of existing addiction. However, psychological factors are also important in the maintenance of addictive behaviour and one should not assume that all are recognised. For example, it is known that drugs are used to reward children employed by the pornographic industry and that sexually abused children can develop drug addiction (Burgess et al., 1984). There are now over 300 publications on child sexual abuse but none linking it with benzodiazepine addiction specifically. This is the first one.

Type
Articles
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989

References

Baker, A. W. & Duncan, S. P. (1984) Child sexual abuse – a study of prevalence in Great Britain. Channel 4/MORI Poll for Gambles Milne Ltd. Google Scholar
Burgess, A. W., Hartman, C. R., McCausland, M. P. & Powers, P. (1984) Response patterns in children and adolescents exploited through sex rings and pornography. American Journal of Psychiatry 141, 656662.Google Scholar
Feely, M. P. & Haigh, J. R. M. (1988) Differences between benzodiazepines. Lancet, i, 1460.Google Scholar
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