Thursday, June 24, 2010

Prodigious doses of benzos

---were often needed for patients with DTs in a series presented at the ACCP annual meeting:

The 38 patients with DT who were admitted to the ICU received an average total dose of 905 mg of lorazepam (Ativan), and 37 required transition from oral to intravenous lorazepam.

Now, let's see, at an average ICU LOS of 10 days that's around 90 mg per day or almost 4 mg an hour. Yes, that's quite a bit, reflecting cross tolerance between benzos and alcohol.

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