Treatment for Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

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" JoAnn Guest " <angelprincessjo

Mon Aug 18, 2003 7:52 pm

Treatment for Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

 

 

Treatment for Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

by Charles Gant, N.M.D., Ph.D.

 

(This protocol should not be used in place of a recommended

treatment provided by your health care provider and should only be

used with their approval. I have found this protocol to be useful

for many of my patients but I cannot guarantee that it will be

effective for everyone. Normally, I would recommend a full

integrative medicine workup including amino acid plasma levels, RBC

minerals, essential fatty acids and other diagnostic testing to

determine precisely which of the interventions noted here are

actually needed.)

 

Benzodiazepines are a class of drugs often used as tranquilizers.

Full information on " benzo " problems is available at

http://www.benzodiazepine.org.

 

Here is my current and ever-changing protocol for benzodiazepine

withdrawal.

 

1) GABA 500 to 2000 mg., two or three times a day (GABA, like

tyrosine, may not cross the BBB unless the patient is very stressed

and it appears that the studies that suggest that GABA does not

cross were done on unstressed subjects.)

 

2) Theanine 200 to 600 mg., two or three time a day (Theanine

competes with glutamate receptors to mitigate the neuroexcitatory

effects. In another elegant balancing mechanism, the brain balances

glutamate (excitatory) which is made into the generally inhibitory

GABA (requires B6) The theanine in green tea may be one reason that

the also present caffeine does not seem to stimulate tea drinkers as

much.)

 

3) P5P (pyridoxal-5-phosphate) 50 mg. - One capsule two or three

times a day (Some people don't phosphorylate B6 well).

 

4) Glutamine powder - One level teaspoonful twice a day to three

heaping teaspoonfuls a day, dissolved in water, one hour before

meals, last dose at bedtime (Especially important for hypoglycemic

patients, as glutamine deficiency is by far the main immediate cause

of hypoglycemia and glutamine is the precursor for glutamate).

 

5) Magnesium taurate - 1000 mg. twice a day to 2000 mg. three time a

day

 

6) Salt food lightly with NuSalt/NoSalt (potassium chloride)

 

7) 5HTP - 100 mg. twice a day to 200 mg. three times a day

 

8) Purified soy lecithin - 1000 mg. three times a day (B5

(pantethine (not pantothenic acid) needed to acetylate the choline

to acetylcholine, generally relaxing and downregulating of

catecholamines)

 

9) Pantethine 500 mg. - One twice a day

 

10) Optizinc - 20-30 mg. twice a day. (Lowers the commonly high

copper, which inhibits 5HTP decarboxylase. Activates digestive

enzymes to help with amino acid absorption.)

 

11) Lipoic acid - 300 mg. twice a day (oral chelation for

neuroexcitatory heavy metals, especially mercury)

 

12) Mutivitamin/multimineral

 

13) Distilled fish oil (omega 3) 4000 mg a day and Borage oil (omega

6) 1000 mg. a day (Essential fatty acids ultimately increase the

neuroplasticity of cell membranes, possibly assisting receptor

activity).

 

14) Add herbal " sedatives " if necessary

 

 

 

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