Drug info - Alcohol and benzodiazepines cross tolerance

[Stimulants]

SWIM found this article and thought SWIYs might find it interesting.

Barbiturates, benzodiazepines and alcohol can build up tolerance for each other. This phenomena is called "cross-tolerance". A case cited in a U.S. National Institute of Health publication "Alcohol Research & Health"
( http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/Publications/AlcoholResearch/ ) reported that a severe alcoholic required some UNBELIEVABLE amount of benzodiazepines to produce sedative effect, to the tune of 234 x 10mg Valium by IV and 708 x 30mg Serax pills.

The same article also states that toxic effects of barbiturates and alcohol do not build tolerance, so in a way it's a good news that benzodiazepines are very forgiving. SWIYers will be sleeping indefinitely if they pop a few tens of times the normal dosage of barbiturates.


"Tolerance to alcohol also results in cross-tolerance, decreasing the effectiveness of other sedatives such as benzodiazepines and barbiturates. Therefore, alcoholics undergoing withdrawal may require very large doses of benzodiazepines to produce sedation. In one case, benzodiazepine dosages hundreds of times larger than normal (2,335 mg diazepam administered intravenously plus 21,225 mg oxazepam administered orally) were required to reduce agitation in an abstinent alcoholic (Woo and Greenblatt 1979)."


From
"Alcohol Health & Research World", Spring, 1990, R. Adron Harris and Karl J. Buck

[bosch man]

hi, just a note my dog has some experience he has drunk 10 - 12 units EVERY NIGHT for the last 6+ years and half yes HALF a .25 alprazolam produces a very relaxed body God knows what a full tablet would do lol!

Of course my daily intake is nowhere near what a true alcoholic would take 30+ units daily but i feel my dogs point is we are all very different.