Lorazepam is one of the most commonly used medicines in Spain. He is a psychologist belonging to the benzodiazepine group and is only used when the patient’s quality of life is severely affected.
It has sedative, anxiolytic and hypnotic properties, and its intake is associated with treating insomnia, usually in the short term, or to curb anxiety associated with depression or emotional disorder.
What are your risks?
The most common symptoms of anxiety are reduced by the tranquilizing effect of lorazepam. However, its use is also common to end sleep disorders and enhance the quality of sleep disorders.
Within the wide range of possibilities on the market, this medicine enjoys a privileged location due to its advantages and characteristics. Their absorption and power have an intermediate level, with a half-life elimination of a dose ranging from 12 to 4 p.m.
In patients with insomnia, the usual dose is usually 1 to 4 milligrams per day, which is convenient to take just before bedtime. It is important that its duration does not exceed four weeks of treatment.
As for people with anxiety, the most common dose is between 0.5 and 10 milligrams a day, being divided into different shots. In this case, a minimum dose should be given to the patient to control symptoms, without exceeding 12 weeks of treatment.
Lorazepam keeps behind a wide trajectory and has been used for years. Throughout this time, it has been proven that it is an effective and quite safe drug. However, this does not mean that the patient should not take some precautions and should take it on a medical prescription basis.
We are talking about a sedative, so it can generate various effects when processing the individual’s information. In this way, lorazepam can affect the patient’s concentration and degree of care, as well as executive function and memory. Within cognitive abilities, the drug can have a negative impact when organizing, planning and making decisions.
The anxiolytic can also affect the patient’s nervous system and mobility, and cause a loss of reflexes, which can seriously affect certain individuals. Physically vulnerable patients or people of a certain age can suffer serious falls with disastrous results, such as broken hips. For this reason, the utmost precautions must be taken in these cases, and lorazepam must be used correctly.
The ability to perform certain complex activities that require a high degree of precision and concentration, such as driving a vehicle, can also be affected.
As for sedatives and alcohol, it is advisable for the patient who takes lorazepam to avoid their consumption. And the mixture of alcohol and lorazepam enhances the adverse effects of both substances.
Another problem that can be triggered after the intake of this drug is related to its lack of compatibility with respect to the patient’s physical condition. That is, lorazepam can have a significant impact on people with sleep apnea or respiratory failure. Thus, the person’s basic problem may get worse when you use this medicine or any other sedative or benzodiazepine.
If the patient consumes lorazepam for a long period of time, the body can get used perfectly to its properties, which means it will lose effectiveness. Similarly, the person may notice recurrent noticeable changes on a recurring basis such as fatigue, depression, drowsiness, sedation, asthenia, dizziness or muscle weakness. It is also possible to notice symptoms of greater severity, although their appearance is less frequent: psychosis, hypersensitivity, respiratory failure, anterograde amnesia or angioedema.
Recycling?
Lorazepam can create both physical and psychic dependence. In fact, this risk increases when the dose is higher, and the treatment time continues to be extended over time.
As a general rule, the package leaflet specifies that it is advisable not to extend your intake beyond 6 weeks (in the most extreme cases, 2 or 3 months). However, some patients get consumed for many years and even throughout their lives.
The dependence we talked about does not refer so much to the need to prolong treatment and increase the dose to maintain its effectiveness, but to the withdrawal symptoms that occur as soon as the drug is left. For this reason, health professionals recommend that the suspension be carried out gradually.
The bounce effects that usually appear in patients who have usually consumed lorazepam can range from anxiety to headaches, through insomnia, confusion or hallucinations.
As in the case of other medicines, it is advisable to abruptly leave treatment. The most successful thing is to consult with a health expert, so that you monitor and reduce the daily dose until the patient can leave it definitively.
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