Benzos Temazepam: hard capsules vs soft capsules

[kokaino]

Hey tricomb, you and I were just discussing this the other day about how the North American brands of temazepam, which come in hard capsules were much less effective compared to the European, Asian and Australian soft capsules and tablets. Well I found a study that delves into the matter in depth and I was right - the North American capsules hamper the absorption time of the temazepam.

Temazepam is an extremely rapid acting benzo with an insanely quick onset of effects, so it is no wonder that some (albeit few) complain that it takes too long to kick in.

The study is five pages and you can access it here! That is the link to page 1 of the study and all five pages are available.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

So mixing the powder into a glass of water should work better than taking the capsule plain?

 

[tricomb]

I'll take a look. I think the more important issue here is obvious and is yet somehow overlooked by you man.... And that is, how do we get the tablet version on the American Market? I don't mean how do I get tablets in the US obviously, I know how to use the internet but that's not how I roll, plus I don't even take benzodiazepines that much anymore besides mine are all legally prescribed.

Have you read anything about why we only have a capsuled version on the market in the US, is there a specific reason we don't have tablets? I can understand not having the gels, but I would imagine the tablets would be cheaper to manufacture anyways and easier to accurately measure doses and be absorbed more rapidly and efficiently.

I have the 30mg Restorils and I have quite a variety of different generic forms of them, like Actavis and Purepac, Mylans, Watsons, and Sandoz and they're all each a little different however they work just fine for me since I don't rely on them for sleep usually.

I however, take the powder out of the capsules and sublingual it usually, or sometimes just drink it with something or put it in food even like I put the powder on a strong CBD/THC ratio hash edible the other night and it worked just as good as SL, and orally its still 96% BA so you really can't go wrong either SL or oral.

 

[kokaino]

^ I have no idea why the tablets have not been introduced to the US yet but the reason temazepam was originally put into capsules back in the 60's was because it was an hypnotic scripted for insomnia and the manufacturers of Restoril wanted it in capsule form so that the transition from things like secobarbital and pentobarbital (which came in capsules) would be less troublesome for people who were on barbs for sleep and they associated capsules with sleeping pills, so Restoril was put into capsules and has been ever since.

 

[cj]

Yea the capsules hurt my stomache really bad I have actually thrown up a few times after taking a couple. Great benzo though.

 

[THC2LSD]

So mixing the powder into a glass of water should work better than taking the capsule plain?

I don't think it'll work like the gelcaps. I did that and didn't notice much of a difference. I think it's the particular formula that causes the rapid onset, fucking 20 minute peak. Those soft gelcaps must feel like a totally different drug. No wonder it's not a common street drug in the US even though Resoril was a top 200 drug for many years. Does anyone know what the inactives were in the jellies or that solution in the study that kokaino posted?

Have you read anything about why we only have a capsuled version on the market in the US, is there a specific reason we don't have tablets?

The thinking at the time Restoril and other sleeping pills like Seconal were released was that capsules would break apart and dissolve quicker in the stomach. But later it was found that it's often not true.

I however, take the powder out of the capsules and sublingual it usually, or sometimes just drink it with something or put it in food even like I put the powder on a strong CBD/THC ratio hash edible the other night and it worked just as good as SL

According to the abstract of this study there was no significant difference between the two preparation of an oral capsule or a sublingual tablet. Not sure if they used soft gelcaps or restoril. If it's the soft gelcap that means it's absorbed very fast.

 

[tricomb]

Yea the capsules hurt my stomache really bad I have actually thrown up a few times after taking a couple. Great benzo though.

Really? Never heard of this before. I've never heard of anyone throwing up a benzo before, unless alcohol was involved.

My temazepam regardless of the brand seems to all have the same type of capsule, it's extremely soft and dissolves almost instantly on contact with moisture, so I really doubt that these little capsules are to blame, if they dissolve like this in water, I can only imagine how they would react with stomach acid.

I use empty temazepam capsules all the time for other substances because I really like how fast they break down.

 

[Psychonauticunt]

Really? Never heard of this before. I've never heard of anyone throwing up a benzo before, unless alcohol was involved.

My temazepam (This month I filled the purepac/Actavis brand, for shits and giggles) regardless of the brand seems to all have the same type of capsule, it's extremely soft and dissolves almost instantly on contact with moisture, so I really doubt that these little capsules are to blame, if they dissolve like this in water, I can only imagine how they would react with stomach acid.

I use empty temazepam capsules all the time for other substances because I really like how fast they break down.

These are the ones we get here in the Netherlands. I had to ask my pharmacist separately for tablets (I'd rather have 20mg tablets I can split than the 20mg egg-things), and even then they gave me the jelly beans by default a couple of times. In Finland there are only tablets as far as I know; never noticed any significant difference in the therapeutic or recreational potential between the two formulations - between 30 and 60 minutes, you should be asleep (or feeling buzzed, if you prefer to abuse your medicine). The effect is so subtle anyway that I don't think I could detect a difference even knowing there was one, unless I really wanted to.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

^ I have no idea why the tablets have not been introduced to the US yet but the reason temazepam was originally put into capsules back in the 60's was because it was an hypnotic scripted for insomnia and the manufacturers of Restoril wanted it in capsule form so that the transition from things like secobarbital and pentobarbital (which came in capsules) would be less troublesome for people who were on barbs for sleep and they associated capsules with sleeping pills, so Restoril was put into capsules and has been ever since.

That actually makes a lot of sense. I've only had temazepam in capsules..although I did break them open and just eat the powder (chugged a bottle of water after putting the powder on my tongue). Either way, it kicks in pretty darn fast.

Makes a lot more sense now that you put it that way, kokaino.

 

[tricomb]

Well, it may have made sense then, but now it's 2012 and I want my temazepam to be in scored tablet form, it's the only medication I take that's a capsule. It would be nice to have the option of breaking off a 20mg size instead of having to dose a full 30mg or attempt to take some powder out for a mystery milligram dose.

I mean, it seems logical that they would give you the option to take less than 30mg but more than 15mg... right? I know it comes in other capsule strengths but why not just make tablets? Hah.

 

[THC2LSD]

Shit give me some 80mg temazepam bars. Then it'd be more popular than xanax.

 

[kokaino]

The drug temazepam itself is an extremely rapid acting benzo that has pharmacokinetics that make it for apt to be abused than others, as the study with the triazolam proved. Only triazolam had higher reinforcing behavior than temazepam among benzos and that is because of the ADME of the drugs. However, some people complain about the North American brands because they seem to be very inconsistent unlike the brands the rest of the damn world carries.

In fact studys have shown temazepam to be the most rapid acting benzo, so why some people complain about the NA brands is beyond me. However, the generic NA brands and Restoril do seem inconsistent.

 

[Snake_Eyes]

I get the Mylan 5050, I've opened them and put them in a half shot of water and I've swallowed them whole. I couldn't really tell any difference between the two, never tried SL though.

 

[tricomb]

NA brand?

 

[kokaino]

NA brand?

North American (NA).

 

[tricomb]

for the generics, I don't mind the R 077s I find them to be consistent for me.

kokaino, how often do you consume temazepam? Maybe it has to do with me not taking them that much, I don't know.

 

[kokaino]

I consume it as much as I can. I only get alprazolam prescribed, but I get temazepam from the streets. I usually do it 2-3 times a week. If I find someone with a big script, I'll usually pick them all up and then I'll do them everyday until they are gone.

Funny thing is, I can control my benzos. But when it comes to temazepam for some reason I'll take say 5 or 6 30 mg capsules to start off with and a little later I'm feeling relaxed, cozy, have a lift in mood, and feeling slightly euphoric. So I decide to take a few more to keep it going. Before I know it I'm up the next morning and all my pills are gone and I can't remember shit from the night before. This doesn't happen to me with other benzos, ever. Just temazepam. I don't do triazolam often enough to know if it would have the same reinforcing effects, but I'm sure its probably worse.

It's like the stories of the people who injected temazepam and lost their legs or arms and continued to inject until they lost their other leg or arm. It's pretty addictive shit.

 

[tricomb]

Yeah it's around 150-180mg that it reaches another 'plateau' so to speak, at least IME.

You should pickup a script I find it to be the superior hypnotic for most situations. Why are you prescribed xanax if you don't like it?

 

[kokaino]

I get occasional panic attacks (PTSD related) and I have pretty bad chronic anxiety. I also have ADHD (but I get Dexedrine for that), I also suffer from depression and I have borderline personality disorder (I'm subtype petulant borderline and self-destructive borderline). For the borderline I get a treatment called dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) plus medications (Abilify, escitalopram). I attend meeting with other people who have borderline personality also because my psychiatrist makes me. The escitalopram also treats my depression.

I've tried to get a second benzo scripted for insomnia and have asked for temazepam but my psychiatrist doesn't believe in scripting more than one benzo. He usually gives me trazodone or eszopiclone for sleep, but I tell him that trazodone doesn't help and I don't like the taste Lunesta leaves in my mouth the next day so he says if you really can't sleep then take an extra 1 mg of alprazolam before bed. He has scripted me temazepam twice. Once when I had a suicide attempt and was really suffering from bad insomnia for a couple of weeks and one other time when I just went off on him at the clinic. I told him I couldn't sleep and he refused to give me anything so I went off and he said this is the first and last time I'm giving you Restoril. So I happily walked out with a script for 30 - 30 mg Restorils.

 

[tricomb]

Yeah I know about DBT, how is it working for you? I know someone who made a lot of progress with it.

How long have you been seeing this psychiatrist?