Benzodiazepines for the long-term treatment of anxiety disorders?

In their Seminar, Brenda Penninx and colleagues have strongly cautioned against the long-term use of benzodiazepines for anxiety disorders, commenting that these drugs only act acutely, lead to relapse after discontinuation, and are associated with dependency. Penninx and colleagues propose that benzodiazepines should only be administered as a short-term adjunct and never as monotherapy. We believe that this conclusion is not evidence-based and risks biasing clinicians against an important medication for refractory anxiety disorders.