Ativan/Lorazepam

Dio

Please share your experience with this drug. Thanks! It worked great intravenously 1.5mg for a catatonic episode in the hospital.

Some doctors shirk at the very mention, yet others feel it's good for short-term use. DH is on 1mg up to 4mg per 8 hrs.

ImMaggieMae

My DH was given Ativan through an IV a few years before he had symptoms of MCI. He was in the hospital for an intestinal blockage. By the second day he was acting very confused, and moreso by the day. He was acting pretty much like someone with moderate dementia. He pulled drainage tubes from his nose twice until he had to wear restraining gloves. I asked if it could be the Ativan. They stopped it and the behavior disappeared. It was like a preview of what we are going through now.

Everyone is different, but I would never want them to give it to him again. The only other things he was taking at the time was antibiotics for the blockage.

John1965

I took Lorazepam for a month (5mg 2x/day) after a traumatic event. I loved it. It was like having a beer with lunch. That said, I didn’t have dementia and was very active at the time. I don’t think my DW could tolerate it.

DrinaJGB

It made my brain injured DH confused and mean as a snake.

Lills

Hospice prescribed Lorazepam to my DH 30 minutes before catheter changes.  Even the smallest dosage of liquid Lorazepam knocked him out for hours and hours.  The first time this happened, hospice questioned how much I had given him!

jfkoc

It is known to have a paradoxical effect for some. My husband was one.

Jo C.

My LO did very well with 0.5 mg or even 1.0 mg by mouth on an as needed basis and did not have any negative effects nor did it sedate.  It actually was the only thing that seemed to assist with significant agitation and acting out that was not responsive to lesser measures.

J.

shardy

I'm never quite sure if I should add a negative opinion. I don't have dementia.

I was given lorazepam for vertigo and it was nice, very relaxing. I took it for a couple weeks, vertigo went away, stopped taking it and all was well.. 

The second time I was prescribed it, 4 years later, again for vertigo, was utter hell.  It took only 2 weeks for my body to become dependent on it. 

Neither I nor the doctors knew what was wrong with me, it took just over a month and multiple Hospital stays and doctor visits before I saw a neurology specialist who said he  knew what it was, he had seen it before, it was the ativan.

My body processed it to fast, in 30-45 minutes it was gone and my body apparently was craving more... I had to be switched to a different benzodiazepine and tapered off very slowly.

 I went through withdrawal of the worst kind.. I poured sweat, I shivered with cold, my body twitched all over, constantly, even in my sleep, and sleep was very rare, I cried and cried, for no reason, I twisted and jerked like I was having convulsions, I couldn't pick my feet up to walk -I shuffled, I couldn't think straight, couldn't look at things like a wall of books, it was too much for my brain to process, I dropped 60 lbs in 3 months... and it went on and on...

it took 6 weeks to taper off and another year or so for the last of the symptoms to leave.. My doctor informed me he had since researched it and found it is considered harder to get off of than heroin, not because withdrawal was tougher but because the symptoms go on and on.. I told him I knew, I lived it..

I was frustrated this happened to me and joined a group that sponsored Massachusetts bill H:3594.. a warning to people..... In the  beginning of 2017 I was heading to Massachusetts with the hopes of speaking on behalf of this but alas instead I ended up in Hospital cardiac ward for weeks.. The bill eventually didn't make it through.

They will tell you this drug is not addictive.. Your body just becomes dependent on it.. Which basically is to say you don't crave it, you're just nonfunctional if you don't have it..

Some people take it happily for years with no problem, and others, like me are in hell in only 2weeks..

So my advice FWIW..   Be very careful.

Jo C.

Shardy; how awful . . . . what a hellish experience.  What was the mg. dose of Ativan and how many times a day was it taken?  

We had a relative who for the first time was prescribed an SSRI antidepressant following his mother's unexpected death and his inability to sleep; (I think it was Paxil.)   He had a dreadful reaction even though it had only been taken for a couple of weeks - he also had to be slowly tapered and it took quite awhile for it all to settle down.  Was warned never to take an SSRI of any kind again.  

Meds can be powerful in ways not expected.  

J.

Jack in WN

Has anybody had positive results with THC, I have been using CBD on occasion for my wife to help mood swings but have been suggested to use THC instead.