Health - Which Benzodiazepine causes greatest amnesia

[Fantasian]

In SWIF's continuing effort to use combinations of opiates and beznodiazepines to control his pain after the 4th pain consultant advised it the consultant asked him which Benzodiazepine caused the most amnesia to help with pain and remembering bad pain episodes. SWIF has never used Xantax but for him Temazepam was the most amnesic.

Any advice on how to reply to the doc in which causes most amnesia?
All experiences welcome...

[bewilderment]

I assume that you're basically asking which benzodiazipine is most likely to cause memory loss or black-outs? Well, in swim's experience (she was a benzo addict once upon the time and used massive amounts of valium, xanax, and ativan...she does use klonopin for sleep every now and then these days) ativan (lorazepam) is the most likely to cause blackouts. She's never had much memory loss or any blackouts at all with other benzos unless she's mixing them with something else. But, just ativan alone (usually around 4mg and up) has caused quite a few blackouts some of which were kind of scary. She's also heard from others who have had memory loss due to ativan and has heard from some knowledgeable folks that ativan is well-known for this property.

[Jatelka]

Agree with bewilderment here. SWIJ has used diazepam, temazepam, lorazepam and midazolam (iv, but only once) in various doses over the years.

Lorazepam by far the worst/best. She used to take it in 5-7mg dose range (NOT RECOMMENDED and unsure now why she ever did it) and amnesia invariable. Also very thick-headed/hungover next day, which never happened with any other benzos.

[fatal]

swim told me either ativan or xanax

[Kristy]

Wonder if this is something that varies per person, for SWIM the answer is Xanax. SWIM however does have a very low tolerance to it, and it can cause SWIM to wake up after a few days wondering what day it is/what happened etc

SWIM has always found lorazepam to be a milder benzo, but again does not have experience of it much and has not taken it in doses more than 4mg at a time.

[Fantasian]

Thanks for the advice, SWIF will speak to his GP about Lorazepam.

[bewilderment]

Originally Posted by Kristy

SWIM has always found lorazepam to be a milder benzo, but again does not have experience of it much and has not taken it in doses more than 4mg at a time.

Swim has found it to be a less pleasurable benzo, but not milder for its purpose. It seems to work well with lessening anxiety or helping with sleep, but swim usually doesn't consider it very recreational or fun. I don't know about others, but swim says it makes her feel the most numb out of the whole benzo bunch, but that's not much of a good thing unless someone is depressed. It seems to make swim's pleasure center sort of turn off or something whereas she can still manage to have fun on other benzos because they mostly just lower her inhibitions.

I've also heard that ativan is one of the easiest benzos to get prescribed because it's less addictive than others.

[wearestardust]

Jatelka may remember; about 20 years ago, lorazepam was almost taken off the market altogether due to the dreadful withdrawal symptoms which were appearing in elderly patients who had had a course,often relatively short, often only of 1mg tabs rather than 2.5mg, and often featuring terrible bouts of amnesia. SWIWAS also finds that he suffers terrible amnesia after a high dosage; but on the other hand it IS a wonderful drug for use during panic attacks in a dose of about 7.5mg since it is very fast-acting. Since then though, he has preferred bromazepam as his drug of choice to take during an episode. This is as opposed to the alprazolam he takes daily as a preventative. Since starting on alprazolam the amount of full-blown panics SWIWAS suffers has dropped dramatically, compared to when he was on diazepam. Also, alprazolam makes him feel much 'better' than diazepam, which has the effect of constant drowsiness, and not a really pleasant drowsiness either.
Turning to hypnotic benzos, he finds that flunitrazepam, although one of his favourite sleepers, can often cause anterograde amnesia, something midazolam 15mg does not. When using triazolam, he wakens early and as bright as a button, feeling genuinely rested with no amnesiac effect at all. Temazepam can give him a hangover-like effect.