Posted by yxibow on March 12, 2006, at 17:50:35
In reply to Benzodiazepines, does it mean tolerance/dependence, posted by sdb on March 12, 2006, at 16:50:10
> It's an old question but I am not completely sure apart from all common pharmacology knowledge.
>
> How are your personal experiences with benzos?
>
> Did you have tolerance to benzodiazepines (which bz, how long, how much, for what)
> thus the need to elevate the dosage from time to time for the same effect or did you have no problems with tolerance?
>
> Did you have dependence (which bz, how long, how much, for what)
> , you were not or almost not able to taper down the benzodiazepine or did you have no or almost
> no problems with dependence?
>
> There are possible differences between benzos metabolizing in nordazepam eg. Valium
> and other benzos like Xanax xr (alprazolam), Klonopin (clonazepam).
>
> Thanks for every personal experience, response, thought, knowledge...
>
> ~sdb
>
> Short list of benzodiazpines from wikipedia:
>
> Triazolam (Halcion®) - 2 hours
> Midazolam (Versed®, Hypnovel®) - 3 hours (1.8-6 hours)
> Oxazepam (Serax®) - 4-15 hours
> Chlordiazepoxide (Librium®) - 5-25 hours
> Alprazolam (Xanax®) - 6-12 hours
> Temazepam (Restoril®) 8-20 hours
> Lorazepam (Ativan®) 10-20 hours
> Loprazolam (Dormonoct®) 10-20 hours
> Bromazepam (Lexotan®) 10-20 hours
> Estazolam (ProSom®) 10-24 hours
> Clobazam (Frisium®) 18 hours
> Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol®) 18-26 hours. Withdrawn from the market in some countries; considered a "date-rape drug"
> Clonazepam (Klonopin®, Rivotril®) 18-50 hours
> Nitrazepam (Mogadon®) 20-40 hours
> Quazepam (Doral®) 25-100 hours
> Clorazepate (Tranxene®) 36-100 hours
> Medazepam (Nobrium®) 36-150 hours
> Nordazepam (Madar®, Stilny®) 50-120 hours
> Prazepam (Centrax®) 36-200 hours
> Diazepam (Valium®) 36-200 hours
> Flurazepam (Dalmane®) 40-250 hoursIts actually a fairly recent question on the board and we keep beating it with a dead horse. Not that you dont have a right to ask it.
Personally, I categorize most all benzodiazepines alike, since they invariably touch sedative, hypnotic, anxiolytic, and convulsion factors in varying degrees, in varying persons.
I currently take high dosage diazepam, which I believe is not due to dosage escalation but rather both a necessity for the condition, and now slightly higher because of interaction with Trileptal.
Is it tolerance ? I dont think so... I don't have any cravings for it, but then it is a long acting agent.
In general I would describe the short acting agents such as Xanax and Tranxene as potentially possible in some people to cause habituation.
Here's where we get into semantics -- there are probably a certain percentage of the population who have true addiction -- faked prescriptions, somewhat unaware of the amount of the particular benzodiazepine they're taking until it gets into a situation they need to deal with.
Largely though I believe that there is a population that is perfectly capable of taking a set dose of a medication for a long period of time, even as long as the medication was on the market.
And then there is the group, genetics or whatever, that habituate to a particular agent, and must withdraw, or go through withdraw, vacation, and restore cycles.
Finally, I'll add that withdrawal effects can be mitigated by slow tapering of a benzodiazepine. Don't drop it cold turkey -- I did that with Tranxene, and then the * of a college psych doc gave me only part of it back when it should have all been restored and slowly tapered down. All sorts of unpleasant things can happen, which are completely unnecessary. I think I'm writing this for the second or third time, but if one is experiencing "withdrawal" symptoms, they are going too fast. And I don't ascribe to the benzo.org.uk site about their taper schedule and the whole spectrum of things found there -- maybe some people do, that is their perogative.
Also, not all of those benzodiazepines, and there are at least one or two more that may have been on the market outside of the US for a short period of time, are available in the US. They may be available in other countries, and some countries may not have some of those, vise versa.
So that's my 2c. I'm sure this will be a lively discussion
Tidings
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:619438
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060310/msgs/619456.html