OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence of Benzodiazepine use in the outpatient setting of general medicine clinics at a single tertiary care centre. METHODS The prospective prevalence study was conducted in the outpatient setting of Internal Medicine Clinics at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from November to December 2009. All subjects were interviewed after informed consent and variabl...

Benzodiazepine (lorazepam, estazolam, chlordiazepoxide, and ketazolam) stability was studied in postmortem blood, bile, and vitreous humor stored at different temperatures over six months. The influence of NaF, in blood and bile samples, was also investigated. A solid-phase extraction technique was used on all the studied samples, and benzodiazepine quantification was performed by high-performa...

BACKGROUND Chronic alcohol consumption is a prevalent issue. Healthcare professionals often discover their patient has an alcohol consumption issue when they are admitted to the hospital and no longer have access to alcohol. The global standard for treating alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) symptoms are benzodiazepines; however this therapy is often inadequate to control symptoms of delirium in...

Until 27 April 2006, the Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb received 7 reports of amenorrhea associated with the use of olanzapine. The time to onset varies from a few weeks to 10 months. The outcome was reported in 3 cases. One patient recovered after drug withdrawal and two patients did not recover; in one patient there was a dose increase to 15 mg once daily. In case D, hyperprolacti...

BACKGROUND Treatment of schizophrenia frequently includes prolonged benzodiazepine administration despite a lack of evidence of its use. It is often difficult to discontinue benzodiazepines because of the development of dependence. We aim to assess if melatonin can facilitate the withdrawal of prolonged benzodiazepine administration in patients with schizophrenia. Furthermore, we aim to investi...

beta-Carboline-3-carboxylic acid ethyl ester (beta-CCE) dose-dependently potentiated psychological-stress induced analgesia (PSY-SIA), and the effect was reversed by diazepam. Concurrent exposure to PSY stress or concomitant treatment with beta-CCE blocked the development of analgesic tolerance to morphine; the effect of PSY stress was antagonized by diazepam, and that of beta-CCE was reversed ...

Midazolam meleate, a water soluble 1,4 benzodiazepine, was used intravenously in 20 patients suffering seizures, of whom 12 were in status epilepticus. In all cases, midazolam in a dose of 2.5-15 mg rapidly terminated the seizure. There were no complications from the use of midazolam. The causes of the seizures were varied but alcohol-withdrawal seizures were the single largest cause. Thirteen ...

Benzodiazepine binding was measured in amygdala and hippocampus from 19 suicides in whom a firm diagnosis of depression was established retrospectively, and 19 well-matched controls. The number and affinity of benzodiazepine binding sites did not differ significantly between the drug-free or drug-treated suicides and controls.

Modification of glutamatergic synaptic function, a mechanism central to neuronal plasticity, may also mediate long-term drug effects, including dependence and addiction. Benzodiazepine withdrawal results in increased glutamatergic strength, but whether -amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) receptors (AMPARs) are functionally and structurally remodeled during benzodiazepine ...

Anxiety disorders and substance abuse, including benzodiazepine use disorder, frequently occur together. Unfortunately, treatment of anxiety disorders still includes benzodiazepines, and patients with an existing comorbid benzodiazepine use disorder or a genetic susceptibility for benzodiazepine use disorder may be at risk of adverse treatment outcomes. The identification of genetic predictors ...