#60: diazepam (Valium) | Treating Anxiety, Acute Alcohol Withdrawal, Seizures, & More

Diazepam is also known as Valium and Diastat. It comes as a tablet, solution, nasal liquid, rectal gel, and concentrated solution. There are a wide variety of uses for diazepam such as for the treatment of anxiety, pre-op sedation, procedural sedation, alcohol withdrawal, muscle spasms, and seizures. A common dosing range when treating anxiety is 2-10 mg PO bid-qid. There are also approved uses in pediatrics such as for anxiety, muscle spasms, and status epilepticus. The benefits from diazepam are often linked to the enhancement of the GABA-A, not the GABA-B, receptors. The most common side effects are drowsiness, confusion, libido changes, and irritability. There are several Black Box Warnings to be aware of such as concomitant opioid use, the risk of abuse/misuse/addiction, and the risk of dependence/withdrawal reactions. Make sure to monitor the patients’ LFTs if prolonged usage as well as their blood pressure and mental status.  FREE Drug Card Sheet is available for this episode at DrugCardsDaily.com along with ALL past FREE drug card sheets! Please SUBSCRIBE, FOLLOW, and RATE on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever your favorite place to listen to podcasts are. I’d really appreciate hearing from you! Leave a voice message at anchor.fm/drugcardsdaily or find me on most all socials @drugcardsdaily or send an email to [email protected] to leave feedback, request a drug, or say hello! 

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.