In the third season of the popular television series “The White Lotus,” Victoria Ratliff’s character takes Lorazepam, a prescribed anti-anxiety drug to combat social anxiety and insomnia. He’s been using this powerful benzodiazepine, … The main character often mixes her drink with white wine, which causes her to act strangely, including slurring her speech and falling asleep during dinner.
Now, a recent study led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found that the appearance of lorazepam in the series Increase in Google searches for drugsincluding questions about online purchases.
The research results published in “JAMA Health Forum” show that this program Searches for lorazepam increase by 1.6 million This 12-week period is more than would normally be expected during the same period. This increased interest was not seen for other commonly prescribed benzodiazepines, such as alprazolam and clonazepam, which were not mentioned in the program.
“How entertainment media can reflect and drive human behavior is a very interesting phenomenon,” said lead author Kevin Yang, a resident in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
The study also analyzed: Find out how and where to buy Lorazepam online. “There was a significant increase in the number of searches related to obtaining lorazepam.” “This tells us that there may indeed be a group of people who want to know how to get that drug online,” says the study’s lead author Eric Ries, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, and an associate professor at the Qualcomm Institute.
Throughout the season, Victoria Ratliff offers Lorazepam to her husband, Timothy, but eventually he steals her medication and she becomes addicted to the drug amid a personal financial crisis. “He not only ingested it, but he combined it with alcohol, which we know is very dangerous,” Yang said. “In the treatment of anxiety disorders, lorazepam is usually prescribed for short periods of time. Long-term use can cause tolerance, dependence, and abuse. “Research shows that almost one in five people prescribed benzodiazepines end up abusing them,” he added.
Yang said this is concerning because the series emphasizes the benefits of lorazepam use and not the potential risks, such as dependence, respiratory depression, and cognitive decline. “actually No adverse effects were seen “It can occur from overdosing or from abruptly stopping treatment,” he says.
Impact on population
Yang recommends that the entertainment industry and series producers be mindful of the potential impact that depictions of drug use can have on viewer behavior and develop good practices regarding this type of content. This could include warnings at the beginning and end of each episode. It also advises that when people search for information about how to obtain medicines online, search engines should focus and warn on accurate, evidence-based information and support resources.
Yang advises viewers to take a skeptical approach when searching for information on the Internet. “My suggestion is not to believe everything you see in the media, be it TV, movies or music. These only show one side of the medicine and may have side effects. But in the end, it is important to consult your doctor about medicines,” he concludes.
In the opinion of Amaia Bacigalpe, principal investigator of OPIK, the research group on social determinants of health and demography at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), the study has an appropriate design for the research question. “Comparing the evolution of interest in lorazepam with two other anti-anxiety drugs (alprazolam and clonazepam) provides methodological validity to this study. It provides stronger evidence that White Lotus only influenced Google searches related to lorazepam, and not other drugs, thereby strengthening that hypothesis,” he points out in a statement to SMC Spain.
He added that no such changes would likely be seen in Spain. “Because the ease of access to the public health system will undoubtedly make it easier for many questions related to health problems and drug prescriptions to be asked in primary care medical consultations, the need for questions to be resolved will be much less likely to be asked on the Internet. The essentially private system in the United States will likely encourage the use of other means with consequences such as…” Increase in self-diagnosis and non-prescription intake«.
Lorazepam risks
For Elisabeth Domínguez, a psychologist and doctor of pharmacology at Barcelona’s Sant Pau Hospital, president of the Spanish Psychedelic Medicine Society (SEMPSi) and coordinator of Spain’s Psychedelic Care Initiative, in a country like ours, this issue is particularly sensitive. According to the latest data from the EDADES 2024 survey: 1 in 8 adults have taken a sedative-hypnotic drug in the past yearconsumption among young people between the ages of 15 and 24 has doubled in the past decade, often without a doctor’s prescription.
“In this context, audiovisual representation is important. If the use of anxiolytics is mildly indicated in this series, it could contribute to the normalization of anxiolytics.. “Just as the tobacco scene was restricted to avoid the ‘glorification’ of tobacco, perhaps it is time for this type of content to be accompanied by messages and warnings that contextualize the risks and promote more responsible consumption,” Dominguez concluded in a statement to SMC Spain.
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