Chlordiazepoxide

• Severe anxiety, which interferes with your activities, sleeplessness or psychosis.
• Muscle spasms (the muscle becomes hard and painful suddenly)
• Relief of immediate symptoms after withdrawal of alcohol.

When should one not use Chlordiazepoxide

• Allergy to Chlordiazepoxide or any of the components used in the medicine or any other
• medicines of the same class (benzodiazepenes)
• Severe respiratory problems (respiratory depression) or breathing problems while sleeping
• (sleep apnoea)
• Extreme excited states or long standing psychiatric illness
• Severe liver problems (including those that affect the brain)
• A type of muscle weakness (myasthenia gravis)
• Loss of balance or co-ordinated movement (due to nerve damage in the brain or the spine).
• Do not use this medicine for children(below 18 years)

Common side effects of this drug are:

• Drowsiness, feeling light-headed or dizzy or sleepy
• Speech problems, loss of balance and co-ordinated movements (ataxia), tiredness, blackouts
• (temporary loss of vision and consciousness)
• Dependence on the maintenance
• Skin rashes, headache, changes in sex drive, retention and difficulty in passing urine,
• stomach upset, vision problems, low blood pressure, menstrual and other bleeding
• disorders (rare)
• Severe allergic reactions causing swelling of face and throat, breathing difficulty
• (angioedema), self-harming thoughts, jaundice, bleeding problems and infections (serious,
• but rare).

Other General Warnings

• You are an elderly patient with history of lung, kidney or liver problems
• You have any psychiatric illness, depression,
• alcohol or narcotic abuse, nervousness and sleep problems or you lost someone close to you
• recently.

How Does It Work?

Interactions with other medicines

• Anti-depressant medications or sleeping pills or any medicines used to treat psychiatric
• illnesses
• Anti-seizure medications (phenytoin, phenobarbitone etc.)
• Medicines given to induce anaesthesia during surgery
• Medicines that affect the liver – rifampicin (to treat TB), cimetidine, omeprazole (to reduce
• stomach acid), disulfiram (to treat alcohol dependence) or sleeping pills
• Levodopa (used to treat unintentional tremors – parkinson’s disease)
• High blood pressure medications (ramipril, captopril, losartan, moxonidine, nifedipine,
• diltiazem etc.)
• Medicines that relax blood vessels (nitrates, hydralazine, minoxidil, sodium nitroprusside)
• Baclofen (muscle relaxant), cisapride (increases stomach motility), nabilone (for nerve pain),
• pain killers (morphine, codeine etc.), blood thinning agents (warfarin), medicines to treat
• heart conditions (digoxin), water pills – medicines that cause loss of water from the body
• (furosemide), sodium oxybate (treats excessive sleep or muscle weakness), theophylline
• (used for asthma), Anti-allergic medicines (avil).

Interactions with food items

Overdose

Missed a Dose