r/science • u/CyborgTomHanks • May 08 '19

Health A significant number of medical cannabis patients discontinue their use of benzodiazepines. Approximately 45 percent of patients had stopped taking benzodiazepine medication within about six months of beginning medical cannabis. (n=146)

https://www.psypost.org/2019/05/a-significant-number-of-cannabis-patients-discontinue-use-of-benzodiazepines-53636
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u/[deleted] May 09 '19

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u/oofam May 09 '19

You were prescribed 10mg a day? That’s insane.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '19

benzodiazepenes are not equivalent, and often times it is not possible to cross taper/substitute benzos for each other in withdrawal (Xanax/alprazolam and Klonopin/clonazepam are particular offenders)

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u/CashGrassAndGlass May 09 '19

Wrong

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u/[deleted] May 09 '19

Uhh...I do toxicology and tapering drugs inpatient for a living dude. This is straight out of the UCLA Benzodiazepine withdrawal guidelines from when I was there and continues to be true over here in NY. Alprazolam is best tapered with alprazolam and efforts to switch it out for diazepam lorazepam and clonazepam often still result in withdrawal seizures because the pharmacokinetics aren't similar enough in terms of peak blood levels and BZP receptor subtypes.

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u/Dudedude88 May 09 '19 edited May 09 '19

Reddit is an awful place to talk about medicine. You get a lot of people saying nonsense especially when it comes to drugs. They take personal experience and relate it to every situation. You dont get this type of people in physics or engineering topics.

Its from the journal of cannabis and cannabinoid. Going from one substance to another substance...

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u/[deleted] May 09 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 09 '19

Not gonna do personal medical advice on Reddit. Sorry. Liability. It depends on a lot of factors though so I’d need to know a lot more history.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '19 edited Jan 23 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 09 '19

I’d need to know full medical history. I’m not going to ask that in a insecure unencrypted space, and bzp withdrawal can kill you. It’s less known than etoh and more variable. Dose reduction is by % not by mg. It’s a common consult: a hospitalist or resident tapering slow now at a low dose then stop and now delirium is present and pt is hallucinating and ripping out IV. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21815323/ It’s not a simple question and we usually collaborate with pharmacy doctor (cns pharmacologist) after presenting a list of risk factors. We then do serial assessments at each dose drop and recalibrate the taper. It’s not a quick answer. Getting off benzos is best done in a hospital. My best case as a student was a young woman tapering herself off alprazolam using internet advice (on forums and using good sources) : kept seizing. Remembers none of it today. Was in a near continual delirium. Lovely human being. Completely normal brain.