Chemical Structure and When it was Licensed
Diazepam (7-chloro-1,3-dihydro-1-methyl-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one; C16H13ClN2O; molecular weight 284.75; pK a 3.2) is a 1,4 benzodiazepine (Clonazepam, Lorazepam, Midazolam) that was first synthesized in 1959 in the laboratory of Dr. Louis Sternbach at the Hoffman-La Roche facility in Nutley, New Jersey. It was trademarked as Valium in 1961 and a US patent was granted in 1968. Its chemical structure is displayed in Fig. 263-1 .
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Abbreviations
- AAP:
-
American Academy of Pediatrics
References
Alldredge BK, Gelb AM, Isaacs SM, Corry MD, Allen F, Ulrich S, Gottwald MD, O’Neil N, Neuhaus JM, Segal MR, Lowenstein DH (2001) A comparison of lorazepam, diazepam, and placebo for the treatment of out-of-hospital status epilepticus. New Engl J Med 345:631–637
Alldredge BK, Venteicher R, Calderwood TS (2002) Stability of diazepam rectal gel in ambulance-like environments. Am J Emerg Med 20:88–91
Appleton R, Sweeney A, Choonara I, Robson J, Molyneux E (1995) Lorazepam versus diazepam in the acute treatment of epileptic seizures and status epilepticus. Dev Med Child Neurol 37:682–688
Dolovich LR, Addis A, Vaillancourt JM, Power JD, Koren G, Einarson TR (1998) Benzodiazepine use in pregnancy and major malformations or oral cleft: meta-analysis of cohort and case-control studies. BMJ 317:839–843
Dreifuss FE, Rosman NP, Cloyd JC, Pellock JM, Kuzniecky RI, Lo WD, Matsuo F, Sharp GB, Conry JA, Bergen DC, Bell WE (1998) A comparison of rectal diazepam gel and placebo for acute repetitive seizures. New Engl J Med 338:1869–1875
Goodkin HP, Kapur J (2009) The impact of diazepam’s discovery on the treatment and understanding of status epilepticus. Epilepsia 50:2011–2018
Knudsen FU (1985) Effective short-term diazepam prophylaxis in febrile convulsions. J Pediatr 106:487–490
Leppik IE, Derivan AT, Homan RW, Walker J, Ramsay RE, Patrick B (1983) Double-blind study of lorazepam and diazepam in status epilepticus. JAMA 249:1452–1454
Lowenstein DH, Alldredge BK (1998) Status epilepticus. New Engl J Med 338:970–976
Naquet R, Soulayrol R, Dolce G, Tassinari C, Broughton R, Loeb H (1965) First attempt at treatment of experimental status epiletpicus in animals and spontaneous status epilepticus in man with diazepam. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 18:427
Prasad K, Al-Roomi K, Krishnan PR, Sequeira R (2005) Anticonvulsant therapy for status epilepticus. Cochrane Database Syst Rev CD003723.2005
Pritchett DB, Sontheimer H, Shivers BD, Ymer S, Kettenmann H, Schofield PR, Seeburg PH (1989) Importance of a novel GABAA receptor subunit for benzodiazepine pharmacology. Nature 338:582–585
Riss J, Cloyd J, Gates J, Collins S (2008) Benzodiazepines in epilepsy: pharmacology and pharmacokinetics. Acta Neurol Scand 118:69–86
Rogers CJ, Twyman RE, Macdonald RL (1994) Benzodiazepine and beta-carboline regulation of single GABAA receptor channels of mouse spinal neurones in culture. J Physiol 475:69–82
Rosman NP, Colton T, Labazzo J, Gilbert PL, Gardella NB, Kaye EM, Van Bennekom C, Winter MR (1993) A controlled trial of diazepam administered during febrile illnesses to prevent recurrence of febrile seizures. New Engl J Med 329:79–84
Schmidt D (1995) Benzodiazepines: diazepam. In: Levy R et al. (eds) Antiepileptic drugs. Raven Press, New York, pp 705–724
Schmidt D, Wilensky AJ (2008) Benzodiazepines. In: Engel JE Jr, Pedley TA (eds) Epilepsy: a comprehensive textbook. Lipponcott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, pp 1531–1541
Steering Committee on Quality Improvements and Management (2008) Febrile seizures: clinical practice guideline for the long-term management of the child with simple febrile seizures. Pediatrics 121:1281–1286
Tanaka E (1999) Clinically significant pharmacokinetic drug interactions with benzodiazepines. J Clin Pharm Ther 24:347–355
Treiman DM, Meyers PD, Walton NY, Collins JF, Colling C, Rowan AJ, Handforth A, Faught E, Calabrese VP, Uthman BM, Ramsay RE, Mamdani MB, Veterans Affairs Status Epilepticus Cooperative Study Group (1998) A comparison of four treatments for generalized convulsive status epilepticus. New Engl J Med 339:792–798
Verrotti A, Latini G, di Corcia G, Giannuzzi R, Salladini C, Trotta D, Chiarelli F (2004) Intermittent oral diazepam prophylaxis in febrile convulsions: its effectiveness for febrile seizure recurrence. Eur J Paediatr Neurol 8:131–134
Wesson DR, Camber S, Harkey M, Smith DE (1985) Diazepam and desmethyldiazepam in breast milk. J Psychoactive Drugs 17:55–56
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag London Limited
About this entry
Cite this entry
Goodkin, H.P. (2010). Diazepam. In: Panayiotopoulos, C.P. (eds) Atlas of Epilepsies. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-128-6_263
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-128-6_263
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-84882-127-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-84882-128-6
eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine