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Benzos Diazepam and it's metabolites.

sturdychinfilms

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 7, 2010
Messages
83
I am prescribed 20mg of Diazepam a day. From what I gather, the half life of Diazepam is as long as it is because of its metabolites. I think Diazepam has a 5 hour half-life, but then it's metabolites: desmethyldiazepam,oxazepam, and temazepam kick in. I've got a few questions about this.

How long does it take for the metabolites to start playing a role in anxiety relief? Does it start the minute Diazepam is absorbed? Is it within the therapeutic effect range of the diazepam? Or do the metabolites just kick in around when the diazepam has reached it's half life.

Also, has anybody had the sensation of actually feeling metabolites kicking in? Sometimes I will take the Diazepam and around 3 hours in, for like 15 minutes, my anxiety will come back a little bit but then it disappears again. The sensation of the anxiety suppression at this point also feels different. Is there anyone else that this happens to? I'm just curious.

BTW, I take the 20mg with 1mg of Alprazolam and 4mg of Etizolam ever morning, so the Alprazolam and Etizolam may have something to do with the sensations. I'm mostly focused on, and want to know about, the timing of the metabolites. I would think it would be pretty easy to make a chart if you knew around when the metabolites come into play.

Can anyone explain the timing of the metabolization to me?

Thanks,

sturdychinfilms
 
Last edited:
Diazepam's metabolites are actually weaker than Diazepam itself, so the anxiolytic effects of your dose are going to decrease after they've peaked. The thing about Desmethyldiazepam/Nordazepam though is that its half-life is so long (several days) that if you re-dose your Diazepam every 24 hours, your body will accumulate Nordazepam until your Nordazepam levels have reached a point where the amount being eliminated reaches an equilibrium with the amount being resupplied (the more miligrams you have in your blood the more miligrams can be eliminated over the duration of one half-life).
 
The metabolites kicking in? Not really, but the sustained anxiolysis but the lack of positive effects indicates that Nordazepam (sold by itself in some countries) is doing its job. As for Temazepam and Oxazepam, they are too small of a quantity no matter how much diazepam you take, you could never take a dose of diazepam where you'd feel 30mg of Temazepam coming in, that's for sure.
 
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