Halcion and Ativan are both Benzodiazepine drugs that happen to be used to treat insomnia, and insomnia includes symptoms that are like trouble falling or staying asleep. Psychological factors such as anxiety and stress can cause the sleeping disorder insomnia. These drugs are known as being effective for managing insomnia and its related consequences in patients. However, Halcion Vs Ativan both belong within similar drug classes, but their uses, dosages, dosing, mechanisms, side effects, and precautions might differ. This blog concludes with all the essential information about these drugs that patients must be aware of.
Differences of Benzodiazepine (Halcion Vs Ativan)
What is Halcion?
Halcion is the generic name for a benzodiazepine known as Triazolam. Its main purpose is to treat individual insomnia. Halcion drug can only be obtained with authorization from a physician. The drug is frequently prescribed as an immediate solution for insomnia, with a maximum 10-day course of treatment. People who take more Halcion than is recommended risk developing a drug addiction within two weeks. This one is a class of antidepressant medications that are frequently used as analgesics to treat several kinds of illnesses. Halcion pills can assist patients sleep through the night and avoid constantly waking up. Although it is a Schedule IV controlled substance, it indicates that it has a potential for dependence. Therefore, the patient’s regular monitoring is necessary.
What is Ativan?
Ativan, a medicine that is also a member of the benzodiazepine group of drugs, Ativan generic carries its primary ingredient, lorazepam. This is frequently used to treat acute or excessive anxiety symptoms, and it can be recommended for short-term therapy. It is also known narcotic and has a dependency on drugs, even with its valid medicinal usage. Being a Schedule IV controlled substance, it has a potential for dependence and withdrawal; thus, it is only prescribed for short-term use. Ativan uses to treat addiction to alcohol, quiet humans on breathing tubes, prevent vomiting and dizziness during chemotherapy, and disrupt memory formation after surgery.
Halcion Vs Ativan Differences
The way that Halcion and Ativan are metabolized by the body is the primary difference between them.
- Both medications are benzodiazepines with significant strength. However, Halcion has about 4 times the strength of Ativan per milligram, making it hardly more effective than Ativan.
- Halcion takes effect immediately, starting to work within 15 to 20 minutes, and it can take up to 4 to 6 hours to put you to sleep. However, Ativan also takes longer to start working—up to 20 to 60 minutes—and its effects on the body remain for up to 8 to 12 hours.
- Halcion and Ativan work to strengthen the natural inhibitory activity of the GABA receptors, producing an overall depressive effect in both the brain and the central nervous system. This activity generally decreases results through hypnotic, amnesic, also anxiolytic products. GABA provides calm because it stops certain brain signals. This restraint diminishes the amounts of both stress and anxiety.
Dosage and Dosing
These products do require individualized dosing by a healthcare expert as they are prescription-only drugs. A patient’s dosage is determined from some key factors such as age, metabolism, and overall health condition.
Halcion
The Halcion brand-name medicine is a scored tablet and comes in only one dosage strength, 0.25mg. However, it has the generic version of 0.25mg and 0.125mg strengths for usage in the market.
Dosing of Halcion
- Taking 0.25mg once a day before sleeping or bedtime is the initial recommended dosage for adult patients.
- For elderly patients, they start with 0.125mg, and that can be increased up to 0.25mg depending on the patient’s medication response.
It starts working within 30 minutes after being orally administered. The effectiveness of the Halcion drug lasts approximately up to 8 hours. Halcion can be taken with or without food.
Ativan
Ativan, which is a brand-name drug, is in the form of an oral tablet and comes with 0.5mg, 1mg, and 2mg dosages. In contrast, its generic forms, namely Lorazepam, come in several forms and have variable dose strengths.
Dosing of Ativan
- The doses commonly administered for the majority of patients range from 2 to 6mg daily in divided doses and at night. Nevertheless, the dosage may range from 1 to 10 mg per day.
- The starting dose for people suffering from anxiety is between 2 to 3mg/day and can be administered in three divided doses.
- For insomnia cases, a single dose of 2 to 4 mg is prescribed and should be taken at night.
The Ativan dosage starts working within 15-30 minutes in the patient’s body. However, it may take 2 hours to reach its maximum concentration. Its effectiveness typically ranges between 6 to 8 hours.
Warnings and Precautions of Halcion and Ativan
- Halcion and Ativan should not be prescribed in instances where the patient has depression because such drugs are likely to cause a higher incidence and probability of suicide. Nevertheless, if a patient has proper antidepressant therapies, a doctor might advise the administration of such medicines.
- Alcohol should not be taken while using these medicines to help lessen the risk of side effects like fainting.
- These two are prescribed drugs, so one should seek the opinion of a doctor if they want to use Ativan and Halcion as medication.
- These benzodiazepines are associated with short-term use only. One should remember that steady use and higher daily doses can bring a person to physical or psychological dependence.
- Reduction of dosages or stopping medications suddenly may cause the development of acute withdrawal symptoms that are dangerous to patients’ lives.
Side Effects: Halcion Vs Ativan
Ativan and Halcion medications do not cause discomfort to many patients and hence can be taken. However, as with most drugs in existence, negative effects are also attributed to the usage of these drugs. But the fact is that the majority of these side effects are only short-term and subside automatically, while a few side effects may be dangerous and need medical attention.
Halcion Side Effects
- Agitation
- Chills
- Fainting
- Sleepiness
- Abdominal pain
- Irregular heartbeat
- Discouragement
- Lightheadedness
- Diarrhea
- Drowsiness
- Somnolence
- Paresthesia
- Vomiting
- Blurred vision
- Anorexia
Ativan Side Effects
- Respiratory Depression
- Dizziness
- Weakness
- Confusion
- Headache
- Blurred Vision
- Drowsiness
- Nausea and Vomiting
- Dry Mouth
- Constipation
- Changes in Appetite
- Difficulty Sleeping
- Muscle Weakness
- Memory Problems
- Changes in Libido
- Skin Rash
Conclusion
As you can see, Halcion and Ativan share some similarities that do exist. The drugs do also present differences. They share similar modes of action, side effects, also precautions aside from being from the same drug family. They can also bring about withdrawal symptoms. Halcion is used for the treatment of insomnia. Ativan treats anxiety, though. Even short-term usage of benzodiazepine drugs risks addiction as well as has the capacity to produce life-threatening complications.
