A case in which chronic pain and other symptoms improved after discontinuing benzodiazepine receptor agonists

Abstract

A 63-year-old man complained of numbness and pain all over his body since 6 years ago. He was referred to our department after receiving treatment at multiple facilities without any improvement. He had been taking benzodiazepine receptor agonists for 15 years as a sleeping pill. The pain worsened in the afternoon and was relieved by taking sleeping pills. Therefore, we thought that the symptoms were due to withdrawal symptoms from the sleeping pills, and replaced the sleeping pill with clonazepam 0.6 mg twice a day, which relieved various symptoms such as pain all over the body. The clonazepam was then gradually reduced in dosage and completely discontinued after 40 days. Long-term use of BZ receptor agonists may cause chronic pain and numbness throughout the body due to tolerance. Some patients who complain of indefinite and strong pain may have a drug dependency as an underlying cause, so it is important to keep this in mind.