Pharmacology - how long alprazolam can implicate alcohol intoxication

[paperstreet]

Today is new years eve and like many of us, SWIM is going out drinking to celebrate. Last night SWIM took 1.5 mg of alprazolam in order to fall asleep early. The time of alprazolam dosing was approximately 2 am. Sleep occured at 3:30 if this makes any difference. SWIM is not positive but he believes that the half life of alprazolam is approximately 11 or 12 hours, which seems pretty long for such a short acting benzodiazepine... but anyways the point of this is SWIM's concern about any potentiation that may occur during tonight's alcohol consumption.

SWIM does not want to black out and act like to much a fool, so he wants to know whether 1.5 mg of alprazolam consumption (oral) 17 hours previously could potentiate alcohol intoxication. (and to what extent)

paperstreet added 147 Minutes and 40 Seconds later...

It should also be noted that the swimmer who is asking about all of this has very little tolerance to alprazolam and benzodiazepines in general.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good thinking in advance, it is good to see someone post an intelligent thread related to harm-reduction

[Laudaphun]

Just don't drive plz. It's likely that it will have some effect still especially given you have little tolerance for alprazolam. Often you may not realize whether or not there was a potentiation until it is too late.

SWIM would guess that the one thing you have in your favor is that while you do not have a tolerance for benzos, it is unlikely to have built up in your system like someone who may have a bit of a tolerance due to regular use of small amounts. SWIM honestly can't answer this question for SWIY and is not aware of how much alcohol you intend to consume or you tolerance for it, but just don't drive and I don't think you have to worry about much as far as any lingering effect from the alprazolam.

Just have a good time and be safe. SWIM will not be celebrating tonight unfortunately as academic work remains unfinished.

[paperstreet]

Thanks for the advice, you had a good point about it not being built into swim's system. Last night was pretty crazy and swim got pretty drunk. It was by no means swim's drunkest night ever, but there may have been some potentiation. (swim does not remember everything from last night, but this is not a unique occurence and there are many other times that swim has blacked out)
Everything ended up fine though, and this is important for other swimmers to remember when consuming alcohol and benzodiazepines. Alcohol may be potentiated even days later, depending on certain compound's half lives, so be careful! Also, swim did not drive (that would have been a bad idea last night... ha.)

[Laudaphun]

Some benzos with long lasting active metabolites would be significantly more worrisome in my opinion (i.e. chlordiazepoxide, along with some others including diazepam, flurazepam, halazepam... those are only benzos approved for use in the U.S. and other countries would have others that) take a while to build up in one's system and while someone might stop taking their pills for a day in preparation for a night of drinking without realizing that the active metabolites are going to most definitely cause significant potentiation. Also, Prazepam and Tranxene seem to be inactive alone, but are metabolized into Nordiazepam which is the primary active metabolite from diazepam. Compounds listed in this post are far from complete as they are referenced from a U.S. based pharmacology text.

But it is good to think of things like this. Glad to hear SWIY had a safe New Years.

[phatassone]

4 to 6 hours swim believes

[agnieszka]

Originally Posted by paperstreet

(...) which seems pretty long for such a short acting benzodiazepine... (...).

Wow, Swim thinks Alprazolam has such a long half-life compared to other benzos. She really feels dizzy the morning after Alprazolan. Clonazepam always worked better