Drugs.com user reviews

[[Al...]]

Just wondering what people think about the user reviews on drugs.com. The vast majority of reviews for benzos are positive as shown in the following quotes from the site. I think this is really dangerous because it will give people a false sense of security. When you submit a review, there is a message saying your review needs to be approved by a pharmacist before publication. I could be wrong, but it feels like they are more likely to publish the positive reviews and bury the negative ones. I submitted a negative review several months ago and it hasn't been published.

Valium has an average rating of 8.8 out of 10 from a total of 318 reviews on Drugs.com. 86% of reviewers reported a positive experience, while 8% reported a negative experience.

Clonazepam has an average rating of 8.2 out of 10 from a total of 2,063 reviews on Drugs.com. 79% of reviewers reported a positive experience, while 12% reported a negative experience.

Xanax has an average rating of 8.7 out of 10 from a total of 812 reviews on Drugs.com. 83% of reviewers reported a positive experience, while 8% reported a negative experience.

Ativan has an average rating of 8.1 out of 10 from a total of 466 reviews on Drugs.com. 75% of reviewers reported a positive experience, while 12% reported a negative experience.

 

 

 

Edited June 21 by [Al...]

[[Hu...]]

A website to compare cars of laptops, that is useful. I would steer away from drugs.com if I were you. I know the site, probably a lot of ppl here and I've read a lot of reviews there, both for benzo + AD's. In the end it doesn't say nothing because genetics are so different.

[[Cr...]]

A majority of the ratings are based on individual conditions (for example: Anxiety, Depression, OCD, etc) and the numerical scale value is an average from all the users at how effective it was at treating that particular condition.

The overall rating is probably based on the average across all the categories combined. Not an overall experience and impression of the med start to finish. 

Since the ratings are based on efficacy of a med for a certain category, it is not hard to believe that meds like clonazepam score high in Anxiety and Panic categories. Clonazepam is indeed very effective.

Other factors to consider is that most people may give their rating as soon as the effects of the medication is felt. Xanax users probably give 9/10 or 10/10 for anxiety and panic, often rating from the first script they filled. So excited to get relief they are happy to rate high.

Finally, even though we are well aware how awful these meds can be when they turn on us or if we withdrawal, the truth is that a sizable majority of people can go on/off benzos several times throughout their lives with little issue. There are people still on benzos 30+ years that have not run into tolerance or faced any severe problems.

The reason a lot of doctors often don't believe us is because most of their other benzo patients are seemingly doing just fine or come off benzos with little trouble. If most patients faced our severity of withdrawal symptoms, our level of withdrawal would be more widely acknowledged. Perhaps the 12% negative reviews are a reflection of the amount of people that end up like us.

[[Al...]]

Yeah, those are very valid points. I did consider the fact that people are more likely to write reviews during the "honeymoon" period when they first start taking a med. I just thought there might be more negative reviews written by people who have discovered the realities of longer term use.