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The tables below contain a sample list of benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine analogs that are commonly prescribed, with their basic pharmacological characteristics, such as half-life and equivalent doses to other benzodiazepines, also listed, along with their trade names and primary uses.
Neuroleptic malignant syndrome, a rare event in benzodiazepine withdrawal, has been documented in a case of abrupt withdrawal from etizolam. [17] This is particularly relevant given etizolam's short half life relative to benzodiazepines such as diazepam resulting in a more rapid drug level decrease in blood plasma levels. [18]
An equianalgesic chart can be a useful tool, but the user must take care to correct for all relevant variables such as route of administration, cross tolerance, half-life and the bioavailability of a drug. [5] For example, the narcotic levorphanol is 4–8 times stronger than morphine, but also has a much longer half-life. Simply switching the ...
Withdrawal is best managed by transferring the physically dependent patient to an equivalent dose of diazepam because it has the longest half-life of all of the benzodiazepines, is metabolised into long-acting active metabolites and is available in low-potency tablets, which can be quartered for smaller doses. [145]
The half-life of chlordiazepoxide is from 5 to 30 hours but has an active benzodiazepine metabolite, nordiazepam, which has a half-life of 36 to 200 hours. [31] The half-life of chlordiazepoxide increases significantly in the elderly, which may result in prolonged action as well as accumulation of the drug during repeated administration.
Clorazepate is a long-acting benzodiazepine drug. [10] Clorazepate produces the active metabolite desmethyl-diazepam, which is a partial agonist of the GABA A receptor and has a half life of 20–179 hours; a small amount of desmethyldiazepam is further metabolised into oxazepam.
[6] [32] Diazepam is the most commonly used benzodiazepine for "tapering" benzodiazepine dependence due to the drug's comparatively long half-life, allowing for more efficient dose reduction. Benzodiazepines have a relatively low toxicity in overdose. [19] Diazepam has several uses, including:
The unchanged drug was 96% bound to plasma proteins. The blood-level decline of the parent drug was biphasic, with the short half-life ranging from 0.4 to 0.6 hours and the terminal half-life from 3.5 to 18.4 hours (mean 8.8 hours), depending on the study population and method of determination. [62]