By Roger Chriss, PNN Columnist

The overdose crisis is driving a lot of panicky policy to more closely regulate the prescribing of scheduled drugs, from oxycodone and other opioids to clonazepam and other benzodiazepines, which are used to treat anxiety.

A California doctor was recently accused of unprofessional conduct and could lose her license for prescribing “excessive amounts of opioid medications and benzodiazepines.” And a New Jersey doctor faces criminal charges for prescribing the so-called “Holy Trinity” of opioids, benzodiazepines and muscle relaxers.

The crackdown on opioids and benzodiazepines may help reduce overdose fatalities, but it also risks depriving people of beneficial drugs. Research is finding new benefits for familiar drugs that may slow diseases and improve quality of life.

In a recent Phase III clinical trial, a “novel” combination drug was shown to ease Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. The drug – called PXT3003 -- provided “meaningful improvement” for people with a hereditary neuropathy that results in a progressive loss of sensation and motor function.

This is a significant advance for people with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which currently has no treatment. The FDA recently gave PXT3003 its “fast track” designation, which speeds the development of drugs for which there is an unmet medical need.

PXT3003 is a combination of three familiar drugs, naltrexone (an opioid receptor blocker), baclofen (a muscle relaxant), and sorbitol (an alcohol sugar). The how and why of this combination of drugs is not well-understood at present. The manufacturer Pharnext says there are “multiple main mechanisms of action” that improve nerve, muscle and immune cells.

In other words, research on existing drugs with known risk profiles has led to a novel treatment. Ordinarily, the use of an opioid and a muscle relaxant is regarded as clinically inadvisable and is actively counseled against in many prescribing guidelines.

Benzodiazepine Research

A similar outcome is occurring with long-term benzodiazepine therapy in congestive heart failure (CHF). An editorial in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics reported that low-to-moderate doses of benzodiazepines “seem to be helpful in silent myocardial ischemia, angina, essential hypertension, and CHF, especially in patients with comorbid anxiety.”

This builds on research from Taiwan in 2014 showing that anti-anxiety medications are “associated with a decreased risk of cardiac mortality and heart failure hospitalization in patients after a new myocardial infarction.”

Long-term benzodiazepine therapy is already seen as important in the treatment of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, a condition in which causes people to act out vivid and violent dreams, often injuring themselves or bed partners. Low-dose clonazepam therapy for months or even years turns out to be a highly effective treatment.

In the same fashion, benzodiazepines are used to treat stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes extreme muscle rigidly and spasms that can make walking impossible. According to the National Institutes of Health, therapy to treat stiff-person syndrome includes “anti-anxiety drugs, muscle relaxants, anti-convulsants, and pain relievers.”

‘Political Interference’ in Medicine

But treatments for these disorders and the development of new regimens for other disorders may be impeded under current federal and state laws and guidelines. Recently a coalition of six physician groups called on state legislatures to end their “political interference” in the practice of medicine and the patient-physician relationship.

“The insertion of politics between patients and their physicians undermines the foundation of trust this relationship is built on and inhibits the delivery of safe, timely, and comprehensive care. Outside interference endangers our patients’ health by limiting, and sometimes altogether eliminating, access to medically accurate information and to the full range of health care,” the coaltion warned.

“Physicians should never face imprisonment or other penalties for providing necessary care. These laws force physicians to decide between their patients and facing criminal proceedings. Physicians must be able to practice medicine that is informed by their years of medical education, training, experience, and the available evidence, freely and without threat of criminal punishment.”

The statement was released by the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Osteopathic Association and American Psychiatric Association.

As the past couple of years have shown, prescribing guidelines have a way of leading to blanket prohibitions. And a risk of blanket prohibitions is that we may miss important benefits.

Roger Chriss lives with Ehlers Danlos syndrome and is a proud member of the Ehlers-Danlos Society. Roger is a technical consultant in Washington state, where he specializes in mathematics and research.

The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represents the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.