Astral Codex Ten

benzos

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benzos

Article

benzos is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between March 16, 2022 and May 18, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as “less effect from benzos during this time”; “saves you from a course of … benzos”. It most often appears alongside 5α-reductase inhibitor, A Mindful Monkey, ADHD.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: March 16, 2022
  • Last seen: May 18, 2022

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Highlights From The Comments On Zulresso
March 16, 2022 · Original source
Also, (also Stahl's), there are two GABA-A receptors with comprosied of different sub-units as you mentioned. Benzodiazepines bind to, cleverly named, benzodiazepine-sensitive GABA-A receptors while allopregnalone bind to their cousins- the benzodiazepine-insensitive GABA-A receptor. The former is found post-synaptically and involved with phasic, quick bursts of GABA (i.e. useful information processing) while the latter is found extrasynaptically and involved with tonic (i.e. chronic) 'tone' setting of the neuron. So they seem to have very different functions despite both involving GABA.
I'm gonna go with urban legend for this one. The early benzos look to me to be chemically named; "azepine" is the word for a 7-membered ring made up of 6 carbon atoms and 1 nitrogen, then "diazepine" is the same but with two nitrogens. The first benzo was chlordiazepoxide (Librium), which if you look at the chemical structure on wikipedia, contains chlorine, diazepine and oxide (the oxygen atom). Then next is diazepam, which to me looks like "diazepine" plus "amide" (which is the word for "double-bonded oxygen atom with a nitrogen next door"). 10 years later we get alprazolam, which looks like it was named after the triazole ring (that's the 5-membered ring with 3 nitrogens), but now the "am" suffix is starting to become generic, to emphasise that its still in the same chemical class as the previous -azepams.
Key point missing in this post is that ALLO/zulresso mediates tonic GABA inhibitory tone (as opposed to phasic for benzos). I wouldn't touch an exogenous analog of ALLO w/ a ten foot pole. Context on severe issues w/ tolerance and withdrawal: Tolerance to allopregnanolone with focus on the GABA-A receptor.
Inline links: Tolerance to allopregnanolone with focus on the GABA-A receptor
Lavender's Game: Silexan For Anxiety
May 18, 2022 · Original source
Benzodiazepines, which work great, but are really addictive.
Now people are saying that silexan works even better than benzodiazepines, doesn’t cause addiction, and has no major side effects! If true, this would change the world. SSRIs changed the world, and they’re nowhere near as impressive as silexan claims to be.
Reports conflict on whether it works immediately, or “builds up” over a few weeks. Many of the anecdotal reports say they feel better within the first hour, and the aromatherapy studies are also done on the assumption that the substance works immediately. But Aiken says only that patients start to feel improved after a week, and some of the studies don’t show separation from placebo until after a month. I have no priors on this one: benzodiazepines work immediately, SSRIs take a month, and silexan has been compared to both. I’d recommend trying it for a few weeks just to be sure you’re not missing anything.