How can prescription mood-altering drugs affect my health?

Prescription mood-altering drugs, such as anti-anxiety agents, antidepressants, and sedatives, have long been marketed to women. Benzodiazepines are one category of prescribed mood altering drugs, commonly referred to as tranquilizers. Doctors have prescribed them widely, especially to women, since the 1960s for short-term relief of anxiety and sleeping problems, as well as to ease withdrawal from other drugs. Common tranquilizers are Valium (diazepam), Ativan (lorazepam), Serax (oxazepam), Xanax (alprazolam), and Klonopin (clonazepam). Even short-term use of tranquilizers can harm memory and reasoning, balance and coordination. And there are more serious effects from longer-term use of tranquilizers, including feeling dull, suicidal, and anxious. like alcohol, tranquilizers can be especially dangerous for women who are pregnant or elderly.