| Drug | Dosing Schedule | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|
Anticonvulsant effects | Abuse potential; respiratory depression | |
| Chlordiazepoxide (Librium) | 20 to 100 mg orally or intravenously, every 6 hours | Widely used | Long half-life (30 to 60 hours); inject slowly; high hepatic metabolism |
| Diazepam (Valium) | 5 to 20 mg orally or intravenously, every 6 hours | Widely used | Long half-life (30 to 60 hours); inject slowly; high hepatic metabolism |
| Lorazepam (Ativan) | 1 to 2 mg orally, intravenously or intamuscularly, every 4 hours | Intramuscular administration; lower hepatic metabolism | Limited experience |
| Oxazepam (Serax) | 15 to 30 mg orally, every 4 hours | Short half-life (5 to 10 hours); lower hepatic metabolism | No parenteral form |
| Adrenergic blockers | No abuse potential; limited oversedation risk | No anticonvulsant effects | |
| Clonidine (Catapres) | 0.1 to 0.3 mg orally, three or four times daily | No respiratory depression | Hypotension |
| Propranolol (Inderal) | 40 to 160 mg per day orally in three divided doses | Arrhythmia prevention | Higher hallucination risk;medical contraindications (congestive heart failure, bronchospasm, etc.); hepatically cleared |
| Carbamazepine (Tegretol) | 200 mg orally, four times daily | Anticonvulsant effects; no abuse potential | Risk of hepatic toxicity and aplastic anemia; no parenteral form |
| Chlormethiazole | Anticonvulsant effects; sedating | Dependency problems; respiratory depression |
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