How long do Benzodiazepines stay in the body after the last dose?

Answer 1

Answer:It greatly depends on the benzodiazepine, normally broken down into three groups, long acting moderate acting, and short acting.

Long acting drugs include:

Lectopam (bromazepam), Librium (chlordiazepoxide), Klonopin/Rivotril (clonazepam), Tranxene (clorazepate), Valium (diazepam), Dalmane (flurazepam), and Doral (quazepam).

These drugs may last for 1-3 days

Intermediate-acting drugs include:

Restoril (temazepam), Ativan (lorazepam), Rohypnol (flunitrazepam), Mogadon (nitrazepam), ProSom (estazolam).

These drugs may last for 10-20hrs

Short acting drugs include:

Xanax (alprazolam), Serax/Serepax (oxazepam), Halcion (triazolam), Versed (midazolam)

These drugs may last for 3-9hrs

Note: Some of these drugs may not be available in all jurisdictions.

Answer 2

I was tempted to hit 'bad question' on the grounds that benzos are so different from one another; some are anxiolytic, some anticonvulsant and some hypnotic, and all have differing half-lives ranging from the very short (Lendormin, Halcion) to the extremely long (diazepam, nordazepam, prazepam).

A single 500mcg dose of alprazolam should be undetectable after a couple or three days, whilst diazepam would be detected two or three weeks after a 10mg dose. By the way, these doses are equivalent in strength.

I have tested positive for benzodiazepines 45 days after my last dose of diazepam. Admittedly, I had been on 40mg/day for three months beforehand.

The hypnotics tend to be the ones with the short half-lives, with the exception of flunitrazepam (Hypnodorm, Rohydorm, Rohypnol) which I consider a good thing in that I need not take an anxiolytic the next day until quite late on. However, hypnotic benzos are notorious for the development of tolerance very quickly, so I rotate my flunitrazepam with midazolam and sometimes temazepam, and also ensure that I keep at least two med-free nights per week. If I wait until nearly bedtime before taking my final two alprazolam of the day, then i find I can sleep well enough, though I tend to wake early.