- In the HBO hit The White Lotus, Parker Posey plays Victoria, is a wealthy, lorazepam-popping woman who is often zoning out or falling asleep
- She’s shown mixing the medication with alcohol, which is “absolutely not” recommended as it can cause respiratory distress and other problems, according to Dr. Joseph Squitieri at Northwell Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens, NY
- The medication is used to treat anxiety, Squitieri says, and not intended for long-term use
The rich and scandalous are back on vacation in season 3 of the HBO hit The White Lotus — and in the first two episodes, wealthy, loopy American Victoria (played by Parker Posey) is shown to have what may be a concerning dependence on lorazepam.
The drug — known by its brand name Ativan — is a benzodiazepine that treats anxiety disorder or panic disorder. And it’s not for long-term use, Dr. Joseph Squitieri, DO, division director for adult ambulatory psychiatry at Northwell Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens, NY, tells PEOPLE.
“Benzodiazepines are not really recommended to be prescribed long-term because of all the complications and side effects and risks that can go along with it,” Squitieri says — adding that the potential for addiction is absolutely one of those risks.
“It’s a fairly short-acting medication, so your body gets used to it. It also wears off fairly quickly, so there’s this kind of habituation that happens where you kind of need more of the medication to get the same effect.” And if you stop taking it suddenly, “You can also develop a withdrawal from the medication, which actually could be very dangerous, could result in high blood pressure, seizures; That’s a life-threatening situation, withdrawal from benzos. A lot of people don’t realize that you can’t just stop it if you’re taking it regularly for a very long time.”
While some people do take the medication every day, most people take it sporadically when facing a panic-inducing event, such as if they’re “claustrophobic” or “if they’re going to be taking an airplane flight,” Squitieri tells PEOPLE. As Victoria is shown on The White Lotus, she mixes the pills with wine at dinner, forgets meeting people, relies on the pills to sleep — and even falls asleep at the table.
Squitieri tells PEOPLE that the medication can cause memory impairment, especially in older people, as well as “difficulty with focus or concentration.”
While Victoria is shown mixing the pills with wine, Squitieri says it’s “absolutely not” recommended to drink alcohol while taking the medication. “It’s very dangerous to combine,” he says, sharing that the same rule applies to alprazolam, known more commonly as Xanax, and clonazepam, known as Klonopin. “Those are all in the same family. You should not combine any of those medications with alcohol because there’s a risk of respiratory depression, where someone could actually stop breathing, excessive sedation, where they could have a fall, they could lose track of time and blackout.”
Victoria’s reliance on the pills, he says, show “a concerning pattern of use: the combining with alcohol [is] very unsafe. The idea that you can pop it anytime you want to relax a little bit, that wouldn’t be a good use of the medication and a potentially dangerous way of getting dependent on it or developing tolerance.”
“Certainly the depiction of it is not the way we would educate patients to use their medication,” Squitieri said. “It can be an effective medication, but it needs to be very carefully monitored.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
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