Quote:
Originally Posted by nakur  I went to my GP today and told him that I have been using Valium for 2 months. I started using it when I quit drinking and started with 60 mg and am currently on 20 mg. He told me to taper it off to 0 in one week and gave me some Oxazepam if the withdrawal gets really bad. I told him that the tapering schedules I found on the net advise to taper it off more slowly but he told me that 2 months and 20 mg isn't that bad.
Did anyone had experience with tapering off so fast and will the withdrawal be really bad?
Thanks Nakur! |
If you find that you have intolerable withdrawal symptoms from the withdrawal plan above, then ask your doctor if you can follow the plan from the Ashton manual.
Click on the link for a withdrawal schedule from diazepam. For a taper plan from 20mg diazepam, you start from stage 10. Ask your doctor if this plan is okay for you. You will need your doctors supervision when withdrawing from benzos.
http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm#s2
Oxazepam is a active metabolite of diazepam. This means that your liver metabolizes diazepam and turns it into oxazepam which is one of the active metabolites of diazepam, so taking oxazepam has basically the same effect on your brain and nervous system as diazepam does. It is difficult to taper because it does not come in small doses and it's half life is too short leaving you with interdose withdrawal symptoms.
Read the Ashton manual to understand what benzos do to you and how to safely get off them with the help of a benzowise doctor.
http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/index.htm
The benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome may develop at any time up to 3 weeks after stopping a long-acting benzodiazepine, but may occur within a few hours in the case of a short-acting one.
http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/40024896/
Metabolism and Elimination: It has been reported in the literature that diazepam is extensively metabolized to one major active metabolite (desmethyldiazepam) and two minor active metabolites, 3-hydroxydiazepam (temazepam) and 3-hydroxy-N-diazepam (oxazepam) in plasma. At therapeutic doses, desmethyldiazepam is found in plasma at concentrations equivalent to those of diazepam while oxazepam and temazepam are not usually detectable. The metabolism of diazepam is primarily hepatic and involves demethylation (involving primarily CYP2C19 and CYP3A4) and 3-hydroxylation (involving primarily CYP3A4), followed by glucuronidation. The marked inter-individual variability in the clearance of diazepam reported in the literature is probably attributable to variability of CYP2CI9 (which is known to exhibit genetic polymorphism; about 3-5% of Caucasians have little or no activity and are “poor metabolizers”) and CYP3A4. No inhibition was demonstrated in the presence of inhibitors selective for CYP2A6, CYP2C9, CYP2D6, CYP2EI, or CYP1A2, indicating that these enzymes are not significantly involved in metabolism of diazepam.
http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/diazepamr_cp.htm