Triazolam--an "abused drug" by the lay press?

For the second time in the past ten years adverse reports in the lay press have questioned the safety of triazolam. Anecdotal reports of central nervous system adverse reactions can be separated into four general categories: (1) delirium in psychiatric patients; (2) delirium in geriatric patients; (3) withdrawal reactions; and (4) anterograde amnesia. Of the four, the amnesia reactions are regarded as serious enough by the Food and Drug Administration that it is requiring hypnotic drug manufacturers to revise the labeling of temazepam and flurazepam along with triazolam to emphasize the potential for this class of drugs to cause traveler's amnesia.