Health - No tolerence to benzodiazepines?

[computergod]

My friend claimed that his tolerance to benzos didn't increase, I
thought he was mistaken. Recently, I checked up on benzos in Merck,
it said that its possible not to build up a tolerance, in certain people
at certain dosages.



I'm currently taking Risperdal for anxiety, but prefer the effects
of benzos. The only reason I'm not taking them is that I don't want to
end up needing to take more, and more.



Is there some way to know if I won't develop a tolerance to them, beforehand?

[Joaspah]

You only talk about tolerance and not about dependence, so i discard the dependence-effects of benzo's in my answer...


Short answer to your question: No.


Long answer: When used appropriately, benzo's remain among the safest and most effective psychotropic medications. The molecular mechanisms that underlie benzodiazepines tolerance (and dependence) continue to be investigated. Some researchers have proposed that a covalent modification of the GABAa receptor may explain the occurence of tolerance. Therefore; the sensitivity of the receptor complex to GABA and benzo's may be reduced. Alternatively, tolerance may be explained by altered expression of GABAa receptor subtypes with different functional properties. However, such changes have not been definitively linked to the development of tolerance.

[computergod]

I posted the question to a few different places. Your response is the only one that actually answers the question, thanks.

[aMorphius]

My own experience with 3 different diazopans has been that for the first
few months (6 months max) the were great! After that, they were just a
monkey on my back (sorry for the trite cliche). Six months on + twelve
months to get off! Definitely a real drag.

If you choose to go this route I would suggest (again from personal
experience) to try not using them every day. Maybe every other day, or
weekdays and skip the weekends.