Oh, one more thing: you generally see paradoxical effects in children, not adults- not to say it’s unheard-of, but I’ve never seen a paradoxical response in an adult to whom I have given Valium in the ER.
Every paradoxical effect I’ve seen has been in children. And by ‘paradoxical,’ I really mean ‘going fangs-out ape-shit crazy.’ I mean, not even capable of coherent thought or reasoning, swinging at everyone, biting, flailing. More to the point, from my observations, purposeful judgment and planning on the part of the patient during such a reaction is strictly (and by that, I mean absolutely) impossible.
I’ve seen someone become dependent on Valium, suffer severe panic attacks in the withdrawal, start abusing Ambien as a substitute Valium, and go really crazy, paranoid, accusatory, during that phase - fortunately flight rather than fight.
Sustained planning was beyond him but he could pull himself together for a few hours at a time.
The worst reaction I have seen was emergence delirium in a child given Ketamine for sedation many years ago....whew
She jumped up from the gurney, grabbed onto the drop ceiling grid and pulled down half the ceiling tiles in the ER.
It seems unlikely that diazepam would cause an otherwise sane 64yr old to create and carry out a devious plan of mass murder.
A word of caution.... one should NEVER drink and take valium at the same time... valium cocktails are deadly!
I’ve only seen this paradoxical effect once as an RN. It was a kid 13-14 who was strung out and crazy on PCP.
We tried to scrape him off the wall using IV diazepam, and it made him incrementally worse. “Fangs-out ape-shit crazy” just about describes this kid.
I was on Lorazepam as a substitute for for muscle relaxers, it is some funky stuff, it turns the world into slow motion and gives a sense of zen. Had to stop taking it because it would give me vision blurring migraines. I have to say though, I have never done such detailed programming in my life as when I was on that stuff. However I find myself less emotional and empathetic than before being put on that stuff, even after being off of it for years. Its kinda spooky it has that after effect. Thank God I still have a sense of right and wrong.
What do you call it when an adult has an opposite reaction? For most people, a shot of Benadryl is a guaranteed nap. Not for me. I’m tired for almost exactly one hour, and then wired for about the n ft 6. I never make executive decisions.... that’s too much adulting for me LOL!