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Topic: Benzodiazepine


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  DEA Briefs & Background, Drugs and Drug Abuse, Drug Descriptions, Benzodiazepines
The benzodiazepine family of depressants is used therapeutically to produce sedation, induce sleep, relieve anxiety and muscle spasms, and to prevent seizures.
Benzodiazepines with a longer duration of action are utilized to treat insomnia in patients with daytime anxiety.
Repeated use of large doses or; in some cases, daily use of therapeutic doses of benzodiazepines is associated with amnesia, hostility, irritability, and vivid or disturbing dreams, as well as tolerance and physical dependence.
www.usdoj.gov /dea/concern/benzodiazepines.html   (605 words)

  
 benzodiazepine - Encyclopedia.com
Introduced in the early 1960s with chlordiazepoxide (Librium), benzodiazepines were heralded as a safer alternative to barbiturates and meprobamate because they were relatively non-habit forming and were less lethal in overdose.
In this group benzodiazepines, especially diazepam and alprazolam (Xanax), are used, sometimes nasally, to ameliorate the unwanted effects of street drugs, such as cocaine.
Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), a prescription benzodiazepine sedative not approved in the United States, is increasingly being abused by teen-agers in some areas of the country.
www.encyclopedia.com /doc/1E1-benzo.html   (1179 words)

  
 eMedicine - Toxicity, Benzodiazepine : Article by Rob Green, MD
Benzodiazepine overdoses (usually combined with alcohol) are commonly observed in emergency departments (EDs) and intensive care units (ICUs).
Benzodiazepine's main effect is CNS depression, thus patients' complaints center on decreased neurologic function.
Flumazenil is a competitive antagonist of the GABA receptor and therefore is a specific antidote for benzodiazepine overdoses; however, use of flumazenil for benzodiazepine overdoses is controversial.
www.emedicine.com /med/topic220.htm   (1859 words)

  
 DHS Substanzen Benzodiazepine   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Benzodiazepine sind eine Gruppe von Arzneimittelwirkstoffen, die als Entspannungs- und Beruhigungsmittel (Tranquilizer) oder als Schlafmittel (Hypnotika) verabreicht werden und zur Abhängigkeit führen können.
Chemisch werden 1,4- und 1,5-Benzodiazepine sowie modifizierte Benzodiazepine unterschieden.
Benzodiazepine besitzen ein beträchtliches körperliches wie auch psychisches Abhängigkeitspotenzial.
www.dhs.de /substanzen_benzodiazepine.html   (1469 words)

  
 Benzodiazepine - What is it? - An overview of treatment, methods of action, side effects and medications
Benzodiazepine is a chemical compound commonly used to treat anxiety, to produce sedation, or as a muscle relaxant.
Benzodiazepines have replaced barbiturates due to the fact that they have a lower potential for abuse and relatively lower adverse reactions (death, for example, is relatively common in barbiturate overdose) and interactions.
Benzodiazepines are generally not recommended for persons under the age of 18, and should not be given to children under 6 months.
www.anxiety-and-depression-solutions.com /articles/conventional/pharmaceutical/benzodiazepine.php   (1600 words)

  
 Study suggests hip fractures not caused by benzodiazepine use after all
Hip fractures are the most serious individual and public health risks attributed to benzodiazepines because they often lead to disability and death among the elderly.
People who get benzodiazepines, such as chronically ill elderly patients with dementia, have conditions, like dementia, that can cause hip fractures--and their hip fractures may not be due to their benzodiazepines," says Wagner.
Additionally, if benzodiazepine medications are abruptly terminated, as may be the case when people lose coverage of a drug, negative effects can occur, such as withdrawal reactions, seizures, emergency department visits, and hospital admissions.
www.eurekalert.org /pub_releases/2007-01/hms-ssh011007.php   (800 words)

  
 Characteristics of Benzodiazepine Admissions: 2000   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Benzodiazepines are a class of central nervous system depressant drugs commonly prescribed for short-term treatment of anxiety or insomnia.
Benzodiazepines were more likely to be reported as secondary to the use of alcohol or another drug than as a primary substance.
Primary benzodiazepine admissions were more than twice as likely as other admissions to have a psychiatric problem in addition to substance abuse (40 vs. 17 percent), which is consistent with the use of benzodiazepines in the treatment of some psychiatric disorders.
www.oas.samhsa.gov /2k3/benzodiazepine/benzo.htm   (995 words)

  
 Behavioral Side Effects of Benzodiazepine Medications in People with Mental Retardation
Benzodiazepine use with persons with mental retardation is generally 5%, but may vary between approximately 3% and 13% depending on variables such as the living location, the specific benzodiazepines, and the diagnostic uses surveyed.
Benzodiazepine behavioral side effects occurred for approximately 17% of persons prescribed benzodiazepines for behavioral or psychiatric conditions, 15% of persons prescribed benzodiazepines for epilepsy, and 2% of persons prescribed benzodiazepines for other medical conditions such as myoclonus or cerebral palsy.
Because the risk of benzodiazepine behavioral side effects in people with mental retardation is frequent at 13%, the cautious use of benzodiazepines is warranted, and the use of empirical behavioral measurement methods is recommended.
www.ombudmhmr.state.mn.us /alerts/benzomeds.htm   (2157 words)

  
 ASAP Dictionary of Anxiety and Panic Disorders
Benzodiazepine (BDZ) - a group of medications that mainly slow nerve cell electrical activity by augmenting the effect of GABA, but are also known to act as CCK antagonists.
However, alprazolam (introduced in 1980) was the first benzodiazepine to prove effective in the treatment of panic disorder, and remains one of the most effective anxiolytics for episodic panic attacks.
The benzodiazepines have a far more favorable ratio between anxiolytic action and sedative effects than the barbiturates, a greater therapeutic index, and less risk for addiction when used properly.
anxiety-panic.com /dictionary/en-dictb.htm   (939 words)

  
 Search Results for "Benzodiazepine"
benzodiazepine, (ben´zodiaz´pen´) (KEY), any of a class of drugs prescribed for their tranquilizing, antianxiety, sedative, and muscle-relaxing effects.
...A benzodiazepine drug, C16H14ClN3O, whose hydrochloride is used as an antianxiety drug and in the treatment of chronic alcoholism and alcohol withdrawal.
...A benzodiazepine used as an anticonvulsant for epilepsy and as a sedative for sleep disorders.
www.bartleby.com /cgi-bin/texis/webinator/sitesearch?FILTER=&query=Benzodiazepine   (250 words)

  
 Benzodiazepine | Encyclopedia of Drugs and Addictive Substances
Benzodiazepines are widely prescribed in the treatment of ANXIETY DISORDERS, sleep disorders, and seizure conditions.
Benzodiazepines have less of an effect on breathing than barbiturates and are therefore considered safer.
In addition, benzodiazepines are less likely to lead to death in cases of overdose.
www.bookrags.com /research/benzodiazepine-ueda   (403 words)

  
 Benzodiazepine Abuse
Benzodiazepines are a type of medication known as tranquilizers.
Benzodiazepines act on the central nervous system, produce sedation and muscle relaxation, and lower anxiety levels.
Benzodiazepines have also been used as a "date rape" drug because they can markedly impair and even abolish functions that normally allow a person to resist or even want to resist sexual aggression or assault.
www.emedicinehealth.com /benzodiazepine_abuse/article_em.htm   (279 words)

  
 Benzodiazepine Summary
Benzodiazepines are drugs that slow certain types of nerve signals throughout the central nervous system and can provide relief in a wide variety of conditions.
The benzodiazepines were introduced into clinical practice in the 1960s for the treatment of anxiety and sleep disorders.
The benzodiazepines (pronounced ˌbenzəʊdaɪˈæzəpiːns, also known [infrequently] as minor tranquilizers) are a class of drugs with sedative, hypnotic, anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, amnestic and muscle relaxant properties.
www.bookrags.com /Benzodiazepine   (281 words)

  
 Benzodiazepine Dependence   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Benzodiazepines induce abnormal sleep patterns and cannot restore sleep pathology on their own.
However, with new evidence of an association between low dose benzodiazepine use and serious falls, older patients must be allowed to reduce their dose where this is possible.
Tolerance develops to all the effects of benzodiazepines apart from the amnesia, which is dose-dependent.
www.medicineau.net.au /clinical/drugs/benzodep.html   (1857 words)

  
 BioMed Central | Full text | Long term benzodiazepine use for insomnia in patients over the age of 60: discordance of ...
The prevalence of benzodiazepine prescriptions in older people is also high: 22.5% of people aged 65 and older in Ontario, Canada reported use of benzodiazepines [2].
Benzodiazepines have been associated with increased risk in hip fractures [7-9], motor vehicle crashes [10], and cognitive impairment [11].
Regarding benzodiazepine use in the patients aged sixty and over for insomnia, the evidence for safe and effective long term use is lacking.
www.biomedcentral.com /1471-2296/3/9   (3029 words)

  
 Flumanazil : Poison Control Center - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Alone or as coingestants, benzodiazepines have been estimated to be involved in 30 to 60 percent of admissions for intoxication.
Flumazenil may be considered for the reversal of benzodiazepine sedation in cases where general anesthesia has been induced and/or maintained with benzodiazepines; where sedation has been produced by benzodiazepines for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures; in therapeutic misadventures and for the management of benzodiazepine overdose in patients who are not at risk for seizures.
Flumazenil is a benzodiazepine antagonist with clinical utility in the reversal of sedation and CNS depression due to benzodiazepines.
www.chop.edu /consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=72619   (1428 words)

  
 Restoril Patient, Information, Instructions - Temazepam - RxList Monographs
When benzodiazepine sleeping medicines are used every night for more than a few weeks, they may lose their effectiveness to help you sleep.
Some people using benzodiazepine sleeping medicines have experienced unusual changes in their thinking and/or behavior, including: more outgoing or aggressive behavior than normal; loss of personal identity; confusion; strange behavior; agitation; hallucinations; worsening of depression; and suicidal thoughts.
For example, temazepam or any other benzodiazepine sleeping medicine should not be taken on an overnight airplane flight of less than 7-8 hours since "traveler's amnesia" may occur.
www.rxlist.com /cgi/generic/temaz_pi.htm   (1589 words)

  
 Benzodiazepine Blues: Living With (and Without) Minor Tranquilizers
Although Valium ranked for years as the leading benzodiazepine (and at one time was the best-selling prescription drug in America), it's been slipping lately, a victim of its own success — and its failure at being trouble- and addiction-free.
The benzodiazepines' main therapeutic effects — to reduce anxiety and induce sleep — are the same as other depressant drugs, with a difference: BZD's target receptors in the limbic region of the brain (a system involved in emotional regulation and control) instead of depressing activity throughout the central nervous system.
One of the biggest dangers of the benzodiazepines is their ability to reinforce what psychologists call "learned helplessness" — the tendency on the part of stressed-out people to throw up their hands and simply do nothing, believing that nothing they do will make much of a difference, anyway.
www.doitnow.org /pages/134.html   (1847 words)

  
 benzo.org.uk : Benzodiazepine Withdrawal: Outcome in 50 Patients, CH Ashton, DM, FRCP, 1987
Benzodiazepine dosages at the start of withdrawal varied from 4mg diazepam daily to 5mg lorazepam plus 40mg diazepam daily (approximately equivalent to 80mg diazepam daily[11]).
Ten of the present series of patients, while on chronic benzodiazepine medication, had taken drug overdoses requiring hospital admission (sometimes on several occasions); only two of these had a definite history of depressive illness before they were prescribed benzodiazepines, although several had been prescribed antidepressant and other psychotropic drugs while on benzodiazepines.
Somewhat surprisingly, outcome of withdrawal did not appear to be related to the duration or age of onset of benzodiazepine usage, dosage at the time of withdrawal, type of benzodiazepine, rate of withdrawal, severity of symptoms, marital status, or sex.
www.benzo.org.uk /ashbzoc.htm   (2323 words)

  
 Abuse and Therapeutic Use of Benzodiazepines and Benzodiazepine-Like Drugs
When benzodiazepine agonists are on their receptor site, GABA produces a more rapid pulsatile opening of the channel, and the flow of chloride is increased.
Benzodiazepines frequently bring substantial relief of spasticity associated with chronic conditions, such as multiple sclerosis and paraplegia resulting from spinal trauma.
Additional evidence of an intrinsic difference in the dependence potential of these drugs was provided by a further study in which mice were treated with doses of bretazenil and alprazolam that were roughly equivalent multiples of their anticonvulsant ED values; sarmazenil precipitated withdrawal in mice treated with alprazolam, but not in mice treated with bretazenil.
www.acnp.org /G4/GN401000172/CH168.html   (8636 words)

  
 MDVU Resource Library - Restless Legs Syndrome - Benzodiazepines
Benzodiazepines act upon the hypothalamic, thalamic, and limbic regions, causing varying levels of depression in the CNS.
Benzodiazepine therapy may improve sleep and reduce arousals due to PLMS, yet may be less effective in eliminating movement and sensory abnormalities associated with RLS.
Potential adverse effects associated with benzodiazepine therapy for RLS include somnolence, especially with the use of long-acting medications (e.g., clonazepam); decreased libido; a risk of falls during the night, particularly in elderly patients; and exacerbation of comorbid obstructive sleep apnea.
www.mdvu.org /library/disease/rls/rls_mbenz.html   (388 words)

  
 Benzodiazepine receptor-mediated chemotaxis of human monocytes -- Ruff et al. 229 (4719): 1281 -- Science   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Benzodiazepines, which are widely prescribed for their antianxiety effects, are shown to be potent stimulators of human monocyte chemotaxis.
The chemotactic effects of benzodiazepine receptor agonists were blocked by the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor antagonist PK-11195, suggesting that these effects are mediated by the peripheral-type benzodiazepine receptor.
Increased expression of peripheral benzodiazepine receptors on leukocytes in silent myocardial ischemia.
www.sciencemag.org /cgi/content/abstract/229/4719/1281   (434 words)

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