Tranxilium: What Is It For?
Tranxilium is the trademark of the active substance dipotassium clorazepate. It is a drug that belongs to the benzodiazepine family, with hypnotic, anxiolytic and anticonvulsant properties.
Due to these properties, it is indicated in all manifestations that occur with anxiety, except those that reach a psychiatric dimension. Have you ever heard of them? Has it been prescribed for you or someone you know and do you want to know more about it? In that case, keep reading everything we are going to tell you about.
What is Tranxilium used for?
As we have been commenting, Tranxilium is used to treat isolated anxiety states or associated with another disease. It is also used to treat insomnia and depression, with an anxiety component. However, they are not the only indications for this drug.
Although, in general, we can say that Tranxilium is used to treat anxiety or anxiety states isolated or associated with depressive states.In addition, chlorazepate is, specifically, the prodrug of desmethyldiazepam, an active metabolite of diazepam, another widely used benzodiazepine .
What is anxiety?
It is essential to know the main pathology for which Tranxilium is indicated in order to better understand its effectiveness. In this sense, we can say that anxiety is a normal response of the body, it is an adaptation mechanism to certain dangerous situations. In this way, it appears in order to anticipate problems and prevent them.
Therefore, we have all suffered from anxiety at some point in our life. However, there are people in whom this state of fear is not proportional to the situation that causes it and interferes in the individual’s daily life, going from being a normal state to a pathological one.
During an anxiety disorder, a patient may feel any of the following symptoms:
- Insomnia.
- Tremors
- Excessive sweating
- Feeling nervous
- Gastrointestinal disorders.
- Increased heart rate and palpitations .
However, each person can develop different symptoms and each patient will suffer from anxiety attacks in their own way.
How does Tranxilium exert its effect on the body?
Tranxilium or clorazepate is a benzodiazepine. This type of medication exerts its action on the central nervous system, and can produce the following effects:
- Hypnosis.
- Sedation.
- Anticonvulsant effects.
- Skeletal muscle relaxation.
In order to achieve all these effects and attribute efficacy against the aforementioned indications, Tranxilium binds to the inhibitory neurotransmitter receptor GABA. This neurotransmitter can bind to GABA-A receptors or GABA-B receptors.
The first is the one that is found in greater quantity in the central nervous system and its activation is responsible for the anxiolytic and sedative effects. Therefore, this drug, by binding to this receptor, greatly enhances the effects of the neurotransmitter.
On the other hand, it is also capable of improving insomnia. To achieve this effect, Tranxilium reduces, thanks to the effects on the GABA receptor, sleep latency and increases sleep continuity.
Finally, it owes its anticonvulsant properties to its ability to act as an inhibitor of presynaptic suppression of nerve impulse transmission.
Adverse reactions of Tranxilium
Like all drugs on the market, this benzodiazepine can also produce a series of adverse reactions that it is important to take into account when starting treatment with it.
We understand adverse reactions as all those undesirable and unintended events that are expected in treatment with a drug. In this sense, the most reported adverse reactions in clinical trials with this drug are dependent on the administered dose.
The most common adverse reactions are, among others:
- Depression.
- Drowsiness.
- Trouble speaking
- Dizziness and dizziness
- Skin rash.
- Headache or headache.
In addition to those mentioned, patients may suffer other side effects, as each person reacts differently to the same treatments.
On the other hand, Tranxilium, like all benzodiazepines, can trigger a dependency box, which will cause a marked withdrawal syndrome if treatment with this type of medication is abruptly interrupted.
Treatment with Tranxilium should be discontinued in cases where the patient suffers from any symptoms of nerve stimulation, such as mania, tremor, anxiety, nightmares or insomnia.
Other recommendations
Tranxilium is a benzodiazepine that is used mainly to treat anxiety disorders. It can produce dependence and tolerance, so it is essential that you inform yourself well about its use and that you never skip the medical recommendations. Misuse of this medicine can lead to serious health problems.
