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Benzos Alcohol to Benzodiazepine GABA equivalency

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Starshowers

Starshowers

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Nov 3, 2010
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ON, Canada
Does anyone know approximates? How much GABAergic activity does alcohol really have?

Like, how much alcohol produces as much GABA-a activity as say 1mg of clonazepam?

I am one of those who uses both alcohol and benzodiazepines responsibly in combination and am super curious to know.
 
This is actually a *really* complicated question and, with present medical knowledge of the constellation of GABA-A, GABA-B and GABA-C somewhat lacking with respect to alcohol, it may even be impossible to make an equivalency chart even if we reduce it to comparing BZD's to ethyl alcohol with respect to only the GABA-A complex. The GABA-A complex alone has five subreceptors, and each of the great many benzodiazepines exert their effects through varying degrees of activity with regards to each of these 5 units. For example, alprazolam may exert much more of an effect on a1 than does diazepam, which exerts more of an effect on 2 and 3 with comparatively minor activity on 1.

As I understand it, the effects of alcohol are primarily mediated via the GABA-B complex, although I do think ethanol's primary alpha (GABA-A) unit is the fourth.

Here is another great thread, "Benzodiazepines and GABA-receptors," that explains a lot about the pharmacology of the gamma amino butyric acid system. I *love* GABAergics and from your stated pattern of use (alcohol and benzo's) I'm sure that would be of vital interest to you.

But overall, I don't necessarily believe anyone can construct an answer to your question based on our current understanding of a number of key components involved here. Very, very interesting subject, though, and I'm interested to see what others have to say. This might be more suited for Advanced Drug Discussion but I'll leave that up to the moderators' discretions. Again, cool post.

~ vaya
 
I've seen the other thread and understand the basic pharmacology of the GABA complex, subreceptors, and what have you.

One idea you proposed that I did not know was that alcohol primarily works with the GABA-B complex. Could anyone else comment on that?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2040048/?tool=pmcentrez This link talks a lot about alcohol being primarily active on GABA-A.

Either way, I thought this could be an interesting conversation :)
 
It would be near impossible to compare them, also alcohol works on many different neuro transmitters and receptors. Benzos usually primarily work on those certain GABA receptors.
 
This is a terrible comparison. Apples to oranges.

How much ketamine produces the effects of 1 standard drink?
How much meth do you have to take to replicate 500mg of cocaine?
 
Apples to oranges, as sekio said. I think you can find a subjective point where there is threshold effects from each, but calling it an equivalence is a bit of a misnomer IMO.
 
+1 to both Sekio and Pegasus. One could give a personal, comparative description of said two drugs (or any GABAergic drugs) but as you two both stated - they would be to the n-th degree so subjective, would there really be any beneficial or any "knowledge" passed? :\
 
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I am going to close this, since the question has been answered and it's just going to be +1's and subjective experiences.

Alcohol is a very complex drug that has effects on much more than just GABA receptors.
 
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