AboutEric Brandt Expertise I am a practicing pharmacist.On my drug information website, I have answered hundreds of questions to date. The articles posted on my site include Parkinson`s disease. depression, menopause, diabetes, sleep and aging, congestive heart failure, calcium channel blockers, thyroid hormone replacement therapy, ADHD, multiple sclerosis an more.
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Question I have a diagnosis of GAD (plus Borderline Personality Disorder), and my current therapy for the last several months is 3 x 0.5 mg Alprazolam .In recent few weeks I have been experimenting with Diazepam, having formed an opinion that (I presume)Diazepam's longer half-life would be a factor that would reduce feeling of euphoria felt with Alprazolam.Now I am on a self-styled therapy consisting of 3 x 10 mg Diazepam, and in my expirience, apart from one time I took a single dose of 30mg, I'm not so prone to euphorical, stimulating effects of Alprazolam.
My question is: while my anxiety subdued under the influence of both drugs-with Diazepam giving more somatic calmness, but less effect in cases where my anxiety is pronounced, like some particular social situations, is there any particular reason in my case for return to Alprazolam?Does Alprazolam as a relatively new medication compared to the rather ancient Diazepam has some kind of objective superiority over Diazepam?
General data about me: White male, 29 yrs. old,(5.8/170 pounds) mixed endomorph-mesomorph constitution , with evenly distributed excess fat tissue,single grand-mal seizure 5 years ago after cold-turkey coffee quiting (EEG and other findings since then unremarkable;not on anti-epileptic therapy), highly preserved motor coordinations and articulation of speech under benzodiazepines.
Thank you for your answer
Answer Hi Marcell,
The advantage of Alprazolam over diazepam is that Alsprazolam does not accumulate in the body over proloned use compared with diazepam. Diazepam has numerous active metabolites and it and its metabolized accumulate over prolonged use. Diazepam can become toxic much more quickly than alprazolam.
The trend now seems to be towards using SSRI's such as paroxetine and citalpram for GAD. Have you been tried on those.
You should not self medicate without physician advice and followup.
Thank you for using Allexperts
Sincerely,
Eric Brandt, B.Sc. Pharm
