is valium better than ativan for treating anxiety

[sid3]

Just wondering if I should ask my dr to switch me over to valium as it has a longer half life

[amish1979]

Ativan should not be a long term medication, it should be taken on an as-needed basis as it has a shorter half-life and can be more addictive than, say, klonopin (this is not to say that klonopin is not addictive).  Ideally you'd want to look at an SSRI, or SNRI (or therapy!) before you commit yourself to a benzodiazepine on a long-term basis as they have addictive properties and will be a real pain to come off of.

It never hurts to ask your dr. anything.

[sid3]

Thank you. I should have added that I have been on ativan for the past three years. It is very effective, but it seems to be a short acting medicine. I was told that valuim is longer acting and less potent. I have tried a few ssri's and had bad reactions to them all.

[marcmega]

i personally love ativan and wish i could take it with my morning coffee forever but seems like ....there could be issues but i like it for real does me good when im freaking out but i only have 15 pills  and have taken 3 and tried to cut some in half and destroyed 2 so im down to 10 need a script!

[RCA759I]

Valium would be a better option over Ativan for longer-term treatment of generalized anxiety. Valium is ineffective for states of panic, however, so definitely factor that into the picture if it is a complaint.

Valium carries a prolonged elimination half-life that is biphasic - that is, it carries two separate elimination half-lives (Your age - 20 for Diazepam, and 36-200 hours for the active metabolite, Desmethyldiazepam). Since it carries a prolonged half-life and is very slowly metabolized, the risk of tolerance (need for more drug to produce the same effect) is greatly reduced. Even so, Valium is a relatively short-acting agent, with a duration of action ranging from 6-8 hours. Ativan, oddly, is longer-acting. Valium is dosed three-to-four times daily. During the first month of use, it does have the "roller coaster" effect (much like Ativan), but once it accumulates, this subsides in the presence of a steady-state plasma level.

Ativan is five times the potency of Valium, so a 5 mg tablet of Valium is comparable in efficacy to a 1 mg tablet of Ativan. This too must be taken into consideration if switching, as the equivalency must be correct. Average Valium dosage is 5 mg, q.i.d. (20 milligrams).

If you suffer from panic disorder, Klonopin would be the most effective agent. Klonopin is twice the potency of Ativan.

For as-needed use (one or twice a week), Ativan in fine. It works rapidly, and is ideally suited for this purpose. If more frequent usage is needed, consider either Valium (for generalized anxiety) or Klonopin (for panic) for longer-term use. Tranxene is another option, but more costly.

Ryan