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Xanax and Cigarettes, how long?

raiders1993

Greenlighter
Joined
Jun 17, 2009
Messages
5
I have felt in the past when taking xanax that cigarettes destroy the effect. I looked it up on here and found that the reason is chemical and whatnot.
My question is how long after my last cigarette should I take Xanax if I dont want the effects to be lessened?
thanks
 
What your saying is impossible, it's all in your mind.
 
Cigarettes do not diminish the effects of xanax, if anything it makes the buzz better. I can attest to this and it's probably all in your head.
 
they say somewhere i dont know maybe wikipedia or some shit, can google if if you need a reference that cigareetes decrease the effects of codeine too. Think it may have to do with the CNS, not the euphoria/buzz etc but yeah agree with OM cigarettes always go down a treat on xanax and they cant all of a sudden give you anxiety. The only thing i can think of is accerelating your heart rate???
 
nope, nicotonic and GABA are different. Maybe synergy could occur, but it shouldn't decrease half life. IDK, this is new to me, and I really think its a myth.
 
nope, nicotonic and GABA are different. Maybe synergy could occur, but it shouldn't decrease half life. IDK, this is new to me, and I really think its a myth.

Exactly. The effects on the brain/body of xanax (a benzo) is completely different than a cigarette (which almost always includes nicotine). Definitely a myth, and sort of a pretty stupid one at that...

-dp
 
Exactly. The effects on the brain/body of xanax (a benzo) is completely different than a cigarette (which almost always includes nicotine). Definitely a myth, and sort of a pretty stupid one at that...

-dp

It has nothing to do with the nicotine, something that is in the smoke. Chewing tobacco does not have this effect, while smoking it does.
I might be wrong, but that is what I have read on THIS site.
 
i've read before (on pubmed, just search for it) that nicotine somehow increases the clearance of certain benzos, alprazolam included, meaning that smoking will decrease the duration of xanax's effects.
 
First of all, smoking more than 10 cigarettes a day increases your likelihood of actually having anxiety in the first place several fold over. Many people have found great reduction in their anxiety by quitting smoking cigarettes all together.

With that being said, yes, smoking cigarettes after you are on alprazolam will decrease its effects substantially. This is no bullshit.

It's also better to save alprazolam for the night time anyways (IMO), so try to get the last cig of the night in before you dose, and you should be fine. Quit smoking too though, it's for your own good (that is, if you care about your own physical health even a little bit). Finally, 2mg alprazolam / day is pretty sweet, if I were you, I'd quit smoking cigarettes to just do alprazolam. That way, your anxiety will be as low as possible (as long as you don't abuse the shit out of the xanax, so you don't have rebound anxiety, and remember to taper before quitting it).

I'm on 0.5mg alprazolam right now, and it's a beautiful feeling. 0.25mg and I can feel it, but it isn't all that great. 1mg and I'm having hypnagogic hallucinations in my sleep (8o:|), I would rarely even consider taking a whole mg of it.

Smoking tobacco (more than 10 cigarettes in a day) increases the likelihood of anxiety, and this is why most people might find less effectiveness in xanax while smoking cigarettes.

I posted this in this thread a while ago: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=430739

Drugs effect different individuals differently, so with this being said, it might work differently for you.
 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Nonlinear mixed effects modeling of single dose and multiple dose data for an immediate release (IR) and a controlled release (CR) dosage form of alprazolam.
Hossain M, Wright E, Baweja R, Ludden T, Miller R.

Office of Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmaceutics, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA, Rockville, Maryland 20857, USA.

PURPOSE: NONMEM was applied to single dose and multiple dose bioavailability data for an immediate release (IR) and a controlled release (CR) dosage form of alprazolam to acquire additional information from the data which are not easily obtainable by traditional means. METHODS: The objective function value (OBJ) and diagnostic plots were used as measures of goodness of fit of the model to the data. A change in the OBJ value of 7.9 was necessary to show statistical significance (p < 0.005) between two models when the two models differed by 1 parameter. RESULTS: A two-compartment linear model with first-order absorption and elimination best describes the data. Including a lag time, two different rates of absorption (KAIR and KACR), and bioavailability for the CR relative to the IR dosage form significantly improved the fit of the model to the data. Cigarette smoking was associated with a 100% increase in clearance of alprazolam as compared to non-smokers. The higher residual variability observed in this study, where interoccasion variability (IOV) was not initially modeled, could be explained to a large extent by the presence of significant interoccasion variability (IOV). CONCLUSIONS: Since alprazolam has been suggested to be mainly metabolized by the CYP3A4 isozyme in humans, it appears that tobacco could be an inducer of CYP3A4 and/or alprazolam may be metabolized by other isozyme(s) (specifically, CYP1A1/1A2) that are induced by cigarette smoke. The population pharmacokinetic model approach combined with exploratory graphical data analysis is capable of identifying important covariates from well-controlled "data rich" Phase I studies early in drug development.
 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Nonlinear mixed effects modeling of single dose and multiple dose data for an immediate release (IR) and a controlled release (CR) dosage form of alprazolam.
Hossain M, Wright E, Baweja R, Ludden T, Miller R.

Office of Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmaceutics, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA, Rockville, Maryland 20857, USA.

PURPOSE: NONMEM was applied to single dose and multiple dose bioavailability data for an immediate release (IR) and a controlled release (CR) dosage form of alprazolam to acquire additional information from the data which are not easily obtainable by traditional means. METHODS: The objective function value (OBJ) and diagnostic plots were used as measures of goodness of fit of the model to the data. A change in the OBJ value of 7.9 was necessary to show statistical significance (p < 0.005) between two models when the two models differed by 1 parameter. RESULTS: A two-compartment linear model with first-order absorption and elimination best describes the data. Including a lag time, two different rates of absorption (KAIR and KACR), and bioavailability for the CR relative to the IR dosage form significantly improved the fit of the model to the data. Cigarette smoking was associated with a 100% increase in clearance of alprazolam as compared to non-smokers. The higher residual variability observed in this study, where interoccasion variability (IOV) was not initially modeled, could be explained to a large extent by the presence of significant interoccasion variability (IOV). CONCLUSIONS: Since alprazolam has been suggested to be mainly metabolized by the CYP3A4 isozyme in humans, it appears that tobacco could be an inducer of CYP3A4 and/or alprazolam may be metabolized by other isozyme(s) (specifically, CYP1A1/1A2) that are induced by cigarette smoke. The population pharmacokinetic model approach combined with exploratory graphical data analysis is capable of identifying important covariates from well-controlled "data rich" Phase I studies early in drug development.

Well then, I guess I was correct. Thank you for your post and for the persons before yours.

So I guess im going to have to quit smoking or tell my doctor to get me something else. Do you think smoking has the same effect on Klonopin?
 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Smoking in patients receiving psychotropic medications: a pharmacokinetic perspective.
Desai HD, Seabolt J, Jann MW.

Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Mercer University, Southern School of Pharmacy, Atlanta, Georgia 30341-4155, USA.

Many psychiatric patients smoke, and are believed to be heavier smokers than those without psychiatric disorders. Cigarette smoking is one of the environmental factors that contributes to interindividual variations in response to an administered drug. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in cigarette smoke induce hepatic aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylases, thereby increasing metabolic clearance of drugs that are substrates for these enzymes. PAHs have been shown to induce 3 hepatic cytochrome P450 (CYP) isozymes, primarily CYP1A1, 1A2 and 2E1. Drug therapy can also be affected pharmacodynamically by nicotine. The most common effect of smoking on drug disposition in humans is an increase in biotransformation rate, consistent with induction of drug-metabolising enzymes. Induction of hepatic enzymes has been shown to increase the metabolism and to decrease the plasma concentrations of imipramine, clomipramine, fluvoxamine and trazodone. The effect of smoking on the plasma concentrations of amitriptyline and nortriptyline is variable. Amfebutamone (bupropion) does not appear to be affected by cigarette smoking. Smoking is associated with increased clearance of tiotixene, fluphenazine, haloperidol and olanzapine. Plasma concentrations of chlorpromazine and clozapine are reduced by cigarette smoking. Clinically, reduced drowsiness in smokers receiving chlorpromazine, and benzodiazepines, compared with nonsmokers has been reported. Increased clearance of the benzodiazepines alprazolam, lorazepam, oxazepam, diazepam and demethyl-diazepam is found in cigarette smokers, whereas chlordiazepoxide does not appear to be affected by smoking. Carbamazepine appears to be minimally affected by cigarette smoke, perhaps because hepatic enzymes are already stimulated by its own autoinductive properties. Cigarette smoking can affect the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of many psychotropic drugs. Clinicians should consider smoking as an important factor in the disposition of these drugs.
 
This is true, as per the pamphlet provided by the pharmacy, advice given by my pharmacist and my doctor, cigarettes can decrease the potency of benzos by up to 50%. This means a tobacco user such as myself, if 1mg is the desired dose. 2mg in a tobacco user will be the recommended dose. The exact pharmokinetics(sp?) of it are foggy to me. But I can confirm as enjoying as a cigarette is during my benzo use it does diminish the effects. What ashame because goes together like ciggs n booze lol
 
I think the science is here to back up the claim that cigarettes diminish the effects of benzos in some way but... I don't believe that it would ever be noticeable, it never is for me. If you're literally feeling the effects of the drug subside as you smoke than you're certainly experiencing a placebo thing
 
I wanna know, in that quotes text posted from a source if says docs should keep it in consideration when prescribing these drugs to smokers. By consideration do they recommend not prescribing it, of reconsidering the dosage perhaps scripting a high dose to counterbalance the diminishing effects of smoking?
 
Cigarettes do affect my xanax high imo. I have read about it as well....

I smoke a cigarette 5 mins before i take my xanax dose and wait 3.5 hours before having a cig (xanax lasts 4-6 hours really depending on dose.)
 
I definitely have noticed a BIG diference in the effectiveness of my clonazepam/alprazolam......when I am smoking(usually ATLEAST 8 cigg's a day) I notice about a 40%-50% decrease in the effects. Its NOT a placebo effect...I doubt placebo could effect it that much...and this was noticed before I was ever aware that smoking actually does decrease the effects of benzo's....therefore there would be no placebo present anyway.
 
Not Science Fiction!

"Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are some of the major lung carcinogens found in tobacco smoke. PAHs are potent inducers of the hepatic cytochrome P-450 (CYP) isoenzymes 1A1, 1A2, and, possibly, 2E1" (Source). This family of enzymes (CYP450, or Cytochrome 450) in the liver metabolize (break down) most benzodiazepines. Inducing their activity decreases benzodiazepine presence in blood plasma (and thus decreases the subjective effects of the benzo).

By contrast, inhibition of the CYP450 enzymes (via cimetidine or grapefruit juice) decreases the clearance of benzodiazepines, thus increasing their levels in blood plasma. This is a common trick amongst Bluelighters (and the drug-using community in general) to enhance the benzo 'high.'

Smoking cigarettes most certainly does decrease the effects of alprazolam, as well as most other benzos (including clonazepam, to answer someone's question above). This is a far, far cry from a "myth" as has been suggested in this thread.

I hope this clears it up for some people.
*Not* a myth!

To answer the OP's question about how long one should wait; nicotine's half-life is only 1-2 hours, but its metabolite, cotinine, has a half-life of 18-20 hours. I don't have any hard data on whether or not cotinine affects the activity of CYP450, but from subjective experience, waiting out the half-life of nicotine seems to be sufficient to get most of the buzz back from alprazolam (and other benzos). So, about two hours after your last cigarette. Keep in mind that nicotine affects the metabolism of hypnotic benzos moreso than it does the others, so you'd have a harder time achieving full effects from temazepam whilst smoking than, say, alprazolam.

~ vaya
 
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