Lorazepam News and Research

RSS

FDA-approved anti-seizure drug could help fight Alzheimer's disease

While physicians and scientists have long known Alzheimer's disease involves the buildup of toxic protein fragments in the brain, they have struggled to understand how these harmful fragments are produced.

12 Feb 2026

Portrayal of lorazepam use inTV series associated with increased online searches for the drug

In season three of the hit television series The White Lotus, the character Victoria Ratliff takes the prescription anti-anxiety medication lorazepam to help with her social anxiety and inability to sleep.

14 Nov 2025

Prisons routinely ignore guidelines on dying inmates’ end-of-life choices

Brian Rigsby was lying with his right wrist shackled to a hospital bed in Montgomery, Alabama, when he learned he didn't have long to live.

15 May 2025

Strong synthetic opioids linked to poor postoperative pain experience

The use of powerful synthetic opioids, such as sufentanil and remifentanil, during surgery is linked to a subsequent poor 'pain experience'---a composite of emotional, cognitive, and physical aspects of pain- suggests research published in the open access journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine.

26 Feb 2025

Researchers investigate CBD's effect on scan-related anxiety in breast cancer patients

The findings showed that CBD did not significantly change scan-related anxiety when compared to a placebo, but researchers did find that CBD was safe and resulted in significantly lower overall anxiety levels.

16 Dec 2024

Rising concerns over benzodiazepine prescriptions in older stroke survivors

Although there has been a slight downward trend in the prescription of benzodiazepines (depressants that relieve anxiety, muscle spasms, produce sedation and reduce seizures) among older adults over the last decade, the rate of first-time prescriptions for these medications after an ischemic (clot-caused) stroke is still sizable, according to research published today in Stroke, the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.

17 Oct 2024

Combination treatment improves symptoms of agitated delirium in end-of-life cancer patients

Treatment with a combination of haloperidol and lorazepam reduced symptoms of agitated delirium, a common end-of-life condition for patients with advanced cancers, compared with haloperidol alone, according to a new study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

16 Sep 2024

Lorazepam linked to shorter progression-free survival in pancreatic cancer patients

Patients with pancreatic cancer who took the benzodiazepine lorazepam (Ativan), commonly prescribed to treat anxiety during cancer treatment, had a shorter progression-free survival than patients who did not, according to results published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

17 Aug 2023

What is the incidence of COVID-19-associated febrile seizures in children?

Researchers investigated the incidence of febrile seizures among SARS-CoV-2-positive children.

2 Feb 2023

CHLA launches first clinical trial for Down syndrome regression disorder with $5.3 million NIH grant

Children's Hospital Los Angeles has launched the first clinical trial for Down syndrome regression disorder (DSRD), a rare and debilitating condition that affects adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome.

23 Jan 2023

Study: Nearly one-quarter of young sarcoma patients continue to use opioids after treatment completion

New analysis finds more than half of U.S. adolescents and young adults with sarcoma - a type of cancer in the bones or soft tissues - are often prescribed opioids to treat their pain.

23 May 2022

Study shows massive variations in prescribing of “comfort kit” medications by hospice agencies

When a person nearing the end of their life enters hospice care, their hospice agency's doctors may prescribe a "comfort kit" of small amounts of medications that their caregivers can give them in case of urgent, distressing symptoms such as severe anxiety, agitation, delirium, nausea and more.

13 May 2022

Identification of long COVID patients using big data

A new preprint exploits big data to come up with some answers as to the incidence, treatment, and impact on healthcare systems of long covid.

26 Oct 2021

Intramuscular droperidol more effective than other drugs for treatment of acute agitation in the ED

In a randomized, double-blind trial of patients with acute undifferentiated agitation in the emergency department, droperidol was more effective for sedation and was associated with fewer episodes of respiratory depression than lorazepam or either dose of ziprasidone.

28 Apr 2021

An overview of withdrawal syndromes following discontinuation of psychotropic drugs

The current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics reports an article that analyzes the data that are available on what may happen when psychotropic drugs are discontinued.

24 Sep 2020

FDA announces requirement of class-wide labeling changes for benzodiazepines

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today in a Drug Safety Communication that it is requiring an update to the Boxed Warning, the agency's most prominent safety warning, and requiring class-wide labeling changes for benzodiazepines to include the risks of abuse, misuse, addiction, physical dependence and withdrawal reactions to help improve their safe use.

23 Sep 2020

Problem drinkers have higher likelihood of using benzodiazepines

Problem drinkers are more likely than teetotalers and moderate drinkers to take benzodiazepines, a class of sedatives that are among the most commonly prescribed drugs -- and the most abused.

14 Dec 2019

Trial comparing three drugs for status epilepticus

Status epilepticus is a condition that is characterized by repeated seizures and is a medical emergency. Treatment is usually with a Benzodiazepine such as Diazepam or Lorazepam etc. There have been not any studies that look at the comparative benefit of drugs that could be prescribed for those who do not respond to the benzodiazepines. The study titled, “Randomized Trial of Three Anticonvulsant Medications for Status Epilepticus,” was published in the latest issue of the journal New England Journal of Medicine.

1 Dec 2019

MU researchers describe Down syndrome-associated catatonia

Down syndrome, due to an extra chromosome 21, occurs in 250,000 children and adults in the United States, making it the country's most common chromosomal disorder. Inherited heart defects, thyroid cancer, celiac disease and developmental disabilities are common Down syndrome complications.

19 Nov 2019

Study finds misuse of benzodiazepines to be highest among young adults

More than one in eight U.S. adults used benzodiazepines in the past year, up from previous reports. Misuse of the prescription drugs accounted for more than 17 percent of overall use, according to a study published online today in Psychiatric Services in Advance.

17 Dec 2018