Like some of the great discoveries in history, benzodiazepine was found when looking for something else.

While working on development of tranquilizers in La Roch laboratories in 1954 Dr Sternbach, an Austrian chemist, had discovered benzodiazepine. Initially the substance did not have what was needed, but years later when submitted to pharmacological evaluation it was confirmed that the compound had hypnotic, strong sedative, anxiolytic and muscle relaxant effects, and was rather advanced in comparison to other related drugs. These important characteristics of the drug lead to rather fast introduction to the market. In 1960 United Kingdom was introduced to Librium, and in 1963 USA was introduced to Valium. The first form is chlordiazepoxide, and the latter is diazepam; both were quite commercially successful for a while, but by 1973 there were seventeen, and nowadays there are about thirty different benzodiazepines available in USA and Europe. Further study of benzodiazepine and its derivatives had lead to the creation of many other forms of it which includes nitrazepam (Mogadon) in created in 1965, and flurazepam (Dalmane) in 1973 and alprazolam (Xanax) in the 1980s.

The substance had become commonly prescribed to treat various complaints like anxiety, panic attacks, depression, insomnia, seizures, muscle spasms, withdrawal from alcohol or other drugs, etc. Benzodiazepine became so popular and was being prescribed to eagerly during 1970-80ss that statistics show that one in every five women and one in every ten men had been prescribed and taken benzodiazepine at some point each year.

Some of the side effects of taking benzodiazepine are: sedation, feeling of depression, dizziness, loss of orientation, weakness and unsteadiness, headache, etc.