Lorazepam: Encyclopedia II - Lorazepam - Dosage

Lorazepam - Dosage

Daily doses vary greatly from 0.5 mg bedtime for insomnia and 2.5 mg every 6 hours and more in the acute treatment of mania, before the firstline drugs (lithium, valproic acid) control the situation.

Catatonia with inability to speak is very responsive and sometimes controlled with a single dose of 2 mg oral or slow i.v. injection. Catatonia may reoccur and treatment for some days may be necessary. Sometimes haloperidol is given concomitantly.

The control of status epilepticus requires slow i.v. injections of 2 to 4 (or even 8) mg. Patients should be closely monitored for respiratory depression and hypotensive effects.

In any case, dose requirements have to be individualized especially in the elderly and debilitated patients in whom the risk of oversedation is greater. Safety and effectiveness of lorazepam is not well determined in children under 18 years of age, but it is used to treat serial seizures. With higher doses (preferably i.v.-doses) the patient is frequently not able to recall unpleasant events (anterograde amnesia) such as therapeutic interventions (endoscopies etc.), which is a desirable effect. But in these cases the risk is given that a patient later makes unjustified allegations of sexual abuse during treatment due to poor recall.

After injections of lorazepam the patient should normally not be released from hospital settings without a care-giving person (parent, spouse etc.) before 24 hours have elapsed, due to incalcuable residual effects of the drug like tiredness, vertigo, hypotension etc. Also, the patient should not drive a car or handle machines for 24 hours after injection.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dosage", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki