Dilosets
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
- Messages
- 89
methadon3000 said:Does anybody know how these benzo equivelancy charts are measured.....for example in terms of anti anxiety effects.....or in terms of which is more hypnotic.....or which is more euphoric...etc.
Because it just doesn't make sense at all comparing say midazolam with alprozalam since everyone knows midazolam is much more hypnotic where aplrozalam is much more anti anxiety.
Well, here's what I think, and what people misunderstand about these benzo equivelancy charts.
These charts all seem to based on those charts made by Heather Ashton, an english professor with long experience of helping people off benzos.
Many people take a look at Ashton's chart and guess that the equalent doses she lists are based on benzo's clinical effect.
But if you read what she writes, you'll find out that she has made the chart based on equalences on withdrawl symptoms.
Thus the chart can NOT be read as "Valium 10 mg is like Xanax 0,5 mg".
What she means is Valium 10 mg gives the same withdrawl symptoms as Xanax 0,5 mg (It's as hard getting off 10 mg Valium as 0,5 mg Xanax, which is something complete different, and might be true, and tells us that Xanax is a difficult drug to get off.
So the equalence chart is NOT based on clinical effects between the different benzos.
If you view the chart closer you'll see that 1 mg flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) = 10 mg Valium. No one who's ever taken Rohypnol will say "yeah, 1 mg of Rohypnol feels like 10 mg of Valium, or 0,5 mg of Xanax". Rohypnol is much stronger in effect, and no one in the right mind can claim that taking 2 mg of Xanax is like take 4 mg Rohypnol (4 pills!). So much Rohypnol would knock you out completely.
So that's when I figured out that it's withdrawl symptoms they mean with those benzo equivalence charts, and NOT clinical effect.
You can't use those charts as saying "X mg of this feels like X mg of that".
I suppose making a chart based on clinical effect would be very difficult, since people are so individually different. For some people 2 mg Valium is more than enough to get ridd of anxiety, while others need 5 mg or 10 mg.