Anxiety drugs like Valium are addictive in same way as heroin, warn scientists

A popular form of anxiety drugs use the same potentially addictive 'reward pathways' in the brain as heroin and cannabis, scientists have warned.


Researchers from Switzerland and the U.S found benzodiazepine drugs such as Valium and Xanax exert a calming effect by boosting the action of a neurotransmitter.

This in turn activates the gratification hormone, dopamine, in the brain, and is the same 'reward pathway' activated by some illegal drugs.

The findings may help in developing a next generation of non-addictive benzodiazepines, they wrote in the journal Nature.

Roche's drug Valium, known generically as diazepam, is the best known of the benzodiazepine class of drugs, and is prescribed on the NHS.