okitekudasai

Can someone tell me the difference between these two pills ?

t4

They are both in the same class of drug along with Ativan and Klonopin.

Potency wise Xanax is basically 10 times more "powerful". 1mg Xanax = 10mg
Valium.
But depending on one's own body, the effectiveness stopping anxiety will
vary.
Myself for example. I was on 3mg of Ativan a day for a month and didn't do
much for my panic attacks but it sure made me sleepy. Then after switching
to 0.75mg per day of Xanax, it made all the difference in the world.
I'm on 1.5mg of Xanax a day today and have been since 7/2002.
The increase was due to starting Paxil, tolerating the lower dose, etc..

philip

They are both benzodiazepine anxiolytics. Xanax is much more potent
(which only means that you can take less of it to achieve the same
effect), has a faster onset of action and works for no more than an
average of five hours. It is sometimes associated with slight
antidepressant qualities. Valium is a very good muscle relaxant with s
sonewhat longer half life than Xanax. Both are excellent meds for
anxiety/panic. These days Xanax is prescribed more often than Valium
although IMO Valium is still a very valid medication. Philip

philip

AFAIK it's totally impossible to OD on Valium.

P.

meryl

The Web CNN.com


Valium hits 40 years old, anxiety-free
Sunday, July 27, 2003 Posted: 7:30 AM EDT (1130 GMT)

Leo Sternbach invented the tranquilizer drug Valium, which became one
of the most prescribed drugs in the United States.


NUTLEY, New Jersey (AP) -- Mother's little helper is not so little
anymore.

Valium, the drug that revolutionized the treatment of anxiety and
became a cultural icon, is 40 years old this year.

The drug owes its success to the stubborn streak of chemist Leo
Sternbach, who refused to quit after his boss at Hoffmann-La Roche
ended a project to develop a tranquilizer to compete with a rival
company's drug.

Sternbach tested one last version and in just a day, he got the
results: The compound made animals relaxed and limp.

Sternbach had made the discovery that eventually led to Valium. It was
approved for use in 1963 and became the country's most prescribed drug
from 1969 to 1982.

"It had no unpleasant side effects. It gave you a feeling of
well-being," Sternbach, now 95, said recently at Hoffmann-La Roche's
headquarters in Nutley. "Only when the sales figures came in, then I
realized how important it was."

The Roche Group, Hoffman-La Roche's parent, sold nearly 2.3 billion
pills stamped with the trademark "V" at its 1978 peak.

While its name was derived from the Latin word for being strong,
Valium soon picked up nicknames: "Executive Excedrin," for its use by
the corporate jet set, and "Mother's Little Helper," the title of a
classic Rolling Stones tune about an overstressed housewife who "goes
running for the shelter of a mother's little helper."

Valium also was referred to as a "doll" -- one of the pills popped by
female characters in novelist Jacqueline Susann's racy 1966
best-seller "Valley of the Dolls." Most of the prescriptions were
written by family doctors rather than psychiatrists, and the majority
of users were women.

"It was chic," said Dr. Norman Sussman, professor of psychiatry at New
York University School of Medicine. "Everyone was on it and talking
about it" in an era of anxiety called the rat race.

'An inventor's inventor'
Named one of the 25 most influential Americans of the 20th century by
U.S. News & World Report, Sternbach was born in Croatia and began his
career in 1940 at Roche's headquarters in Switzerland after earning a
Ph.D. in organic chemistry at University of Krakow in Poland.

Fearing Nazis would occupy Switzerland, the company sent its Jewish
scientists to the United States. Sternbach fled on June 22, 1941, with
his new bride Herta, his landlady's daughter.

"We came with only our clothes," she recalled.

In the United States, Sternbach helped organize Roche's new chemical
laboratory in Nutley, and his first big success was synthesizing
biotin, a B vitamin that breaks down fatty acids and carbohydrates.

With Valium, Sternbach gave the company its first blockbuster.
Sternbach had created an entire new class of tranquilizers named
benzodiazepines, which were safer and more effective than previous
treatments such as barbiturates, opiates, alcohol and herbs.

"It put us on the map," said George Abercrombie, president and chief
executive officer of Hoffmann-La Roche.

Unlike earlier drugs, Valium did not slow breathing, so patients
couldn't use it to commit suicide. But it was overused, Sternbach
said; some patients became addicted, so a doctor's visit was required
for refills.

Still, benzodiazepines remain the most prescribed anxiety drugs,
partly because they start working as fast as one hour, slowing brain
activity. They also are used for treating panic and phobia disorders
and insomnia, calming patients before surgery and relaxing muscles.

"They were the first weapons in our arsenal for fighting anxiety
disorders," said Jerilyn Ross, president of the Anxiety Disorders
Association of America. "It was a huge leap."

Sternbach officially retired in 1973, but worked most days until
recently. He mentored young scientists, corresponded and consulted
with others, and worked on his biography, due out this fall under the
title, "Good Chemistry: The Life and Times of Valium Inventor Leo
Sternbach."

Sternbach's credits include 241 patents, 122 publications, honorary
degrees and other awards. His other breakthroughs include the sleeping
pills Dalmane and Mogadon, Klonopin for epileptic seizures and
Arfonad, for limiting bleeding during brain surgery.

"Leo was a game changer, really. It's quite inspiring to be on a
campus with someone with that impact," said Louis Renzetti, who heads
the company's efforts to speed up discovery of new compounds.

Until a decade ago, one-fourth of Roche's sales came from Sternbach
discoveries.

"He's an inventor's inventor," said Abercrombie. "Within every
company, there is a person or two whose legacy becomes the hallmark of
what the company is about, and for Roche, it is Dr. Sternbach."

© 2003 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
An AOL Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. All external sites will
open in a new browser.
CNN.com does not endorse external sites.
Denotes premium content.

preston crawford

That's a good article. All I know are things I've read like this....

http://www.pharmacynetworkgroup.com/o/valium-overdose-contraindications.htm

And I swear I've read somewhere that the main problem with valium is that
since you take it in such large doses there's a greater chance for
ac***ulation and thus overdose. Not saying that's fact, that's just what I
thought I'd heard and when my psychiatrist and I talked about the safety
of benzos, etc. (she's definitely not a benzophobe and wants me on my
Klonopin as long as I need it) she said she said her only reservation was
going with the older class of benzos because of this danger.

Preston

philip

Of course taking enormous doses of Valium wouldn't do anybody any good
but AFAIK it takes more than that to die from it (which I thought we
were talking about, my apologies if I am mistaken)

The combination of a benzo and a lot of alcohol *is* potentially
dangerous indeed. Philip

kc

ahh, i missed that part. overdose usually indicates an adverse reaction
from taking too much of a drug. symptoms like stupor, coma, seizures, etc.
i didn't know we were talking about it killing you.

-kelly