Flurazepam 175clearing up when he stopped taking flurazepam, and experimental work has
documented the drug’s tendency to interfere with movement. In elderly per-
sons that unsteadiness is associated with falls causing broken hips, and cau-
tion is advised in prescribing flurazepam to older people. One factor with
flurazepam problems experienced by the elderly is that, compared to younger
persons, the elderly maintain higher levels of the drug in their bodies from a
given dose.
Researchers find that the substance can help people shift their sleep sched-
ules from night to daytime, while promoting good-quality rest, yet the drug
still has hangover effects that degrade ability to function after awakening.
The drug can worsen verbal communication, causing voices to become in-
distinct and grammar to become garbled. Studies measuring sleep-time
breathing find that the drug can exacerbate respiration problems; in some
experiments researchers concluded that the change has no practical effect on
health, but medical literature notes an instance in which the drug’s influence
on breathing did cause trouble for a sleeping person. In a mice experiment
flurazepam lowered body temperature. In humans long-term use of the drug
is suspected of causing hallucinations and confusion, and a case report exists
of a single dose creating those symptoms along with euphoria. Investigators
in the 1970s found mild euphoria to be a routine effect of flurazepam. Head-
ache, low blood pressure, eyesight trouble, nausea, vomiting, and constipation
can occur. A case report relates that a woman’s interest in sexual activity
increased when she stopped taking flurazepam anddiazepam. Flurazepam is
believed to interfere with women’s ability to achieve a sexual orgasm.
Abuse factors.Tests with normal persons find that flurazepam has equal or
less appeal compared to placebo. Medical authorities examining the drug in
the 1970s concluded that it probably had little potential for abuse. Despite the
drug’s apparent low appeal, it can create a physical dependence with a per-
son’s body. Withdrawal symptoms can include peevishness, fidgeting, anxiety,
sweating, tremors, high blood pressure, and intolerance to light and sounds.
One longtime user of flurazepam and diazepam developed such a strong de-
pendence with them that a severe withdrawal syndrome occurred when she
suddenly halted dosage: cramps, stomach discomfort, nervous unease, sleep
difficulty, and nightmares. Milder versions of such symptoms are reported if
the original level of dependence is lighter. Symptoms can be avoided if flur-
azepam usage is tapered off rather than stopped suddenly. Volunteers who
received flurazepam in a long-term experiment consistently detected the dif-
ference between the drug and a placebo, an ability causing investigators to
conclude that users of flurazepam do not develop tolerance to the drug (tol-
erance is a classic indicator of addictive potential). This conclusion is not ac-
cepted by all experts, however, and some believe tolerance does occur.
Drug interactions.A catalepsy effect frommarijuanamay become stronger
in mice if they also receive flurazepam, but the reason is unclear.Alcoholand
flurazepam boost some of each other’s effects. Experimenters find thatcaffeine
can lessen flurazepam’s adverse next-day effects on performance. The heart-
burn medicine cimetidine lengthens the time that flurazepam’s metabolite de-
salkylflurazepam stays in the body. In a monkey experiment, that metabolite