cliot (version 1.0.0)

benzodiazepine_conversion: Benzodiazepine Conversion Calculator

Description

Calculates the estimated equivalent dose between different benzodiazepines. The calculation typically uses 10 mg of oral Diazepam as the standard reference unit to derive equivalencies for other agents (e.g., based on the Ashton Manual and other clinical pharmacological data).

Usage

benzodiazepine_conversion(source_drug, source_dose, target_drug)

Value

A list containing:

Input

The provided source drug and dose.

Output

The calculated equivalent dose of the target drug.

Diazepam_Equivalent_mg

The calculated dose standardized to oral Diazepam.

Note

Clinical warning regarding cross-tolerance and variability.

Arguments

source_drug

String. The name of the benzodiazepine currently being taken. Options: "alprazolam", "chlordiazepoxide", "clobazam", "clonazepam", "clorazepate", "diazepam", "estazolam", "flurazepam", "lorazepam", "midazolam_oral", "midazolam_iv", "nitrazepam", "oxazepam", "quazepam", "temazepam", "triazolam".

source_dose

Numeric. The dose of the source drug in milligrams (mg).

target_drug

String. The name of the benzodiazepine to convert to. (Same options as source_drug).

References

Ashton H. Protocol for the treatment of benzodiazepine withdrawal. University of Newcastle upon Tyne. 2002.

Examples

# Example 1: Convert 1mg Alprazolam to Diazepam
# 0.5mg Alprazolam ~= 10mg Diazepam, so 1mg ~= 20mg
benzodiazepine_conversion("alprazolam", 1, "diazepam")

# Example 2: Convert 2mg Lorazepam to Clonazepam
# 1mg Lorazepam ~= 0.5mg Clonazepam, so 2mg ~= 1mg
benzodiazepine_conversion("lorazepam", 2, "clonazepam")