Diazepam (Valium)

What diazepam is

Diazepam is a medication sold under the brand name Valium. It works by supporting GABA, a natural calming signal the brain uses to quiet overactive nerve activity, and it belongs to a group of medicines called benzodiazepines. It is longer-acting than some others in this group, meaning it stays in the body for a while. Because the body can come to depend on it with longer use, it tends to be used thoughtfully and often for a defined purpose rather than indefinitely.

What it treats

Your clinician might suggest diazepam for certain forms of anxiety, among other possible off-label uses.

Diazepam is also approved for easing alcohol withdrawal and, as an add-on to other treatment, for muscle spasm and certain seizure disorders. Those are general medical uses rather than something our practice manages.

Whether it is a good fit depends on several factors, including your history, your other medications, and what you are working on. As with everything in psychiatry, that is decided case by case.

Who should not take diazepam. FDA labeling lists several firm exclusions. Diazepam is not for anyone who has had an allergic reaction to it, or for babies younger than 6 months. It is also not for people with myasthenia gravis (a condition that causes muscle weakness), severe breathing problems, severe liver problems, sleep apnea, or acute narrow-angle glaucoma, a type of glaucoma that comes on suddenly. People with the more common open-angle glaucoma may be able to take it if their glaucoma is being treated. Make sure your clinician knows your full medical history.

How it works

Honestly, no one knows with complete certainty how diazepam produces its benefit. What research suggests is that it strengthens the effect of GABA, the brain's main calming messenger, which can settle a nervous system that is running too fast. The biology is only part of the picture: how much a medication helps, and how it feels, is individual. Two people on the same medication can have very different experiences.

How to take it

There is no single right way to take diazepam; it depends on you and your clinician, and a medicine in this group calls for a bit more care than most. The plan you and your clinician make together is the one to follow, not a number you read online. A few points matter here:

• Take it exactly as you and your clinician agreed, and do not increase the amount on your own.
• Avoid alcohol, and do not combine it with opioid medicines (for pain or cough) or other sedating medications unless your clinician has said it is safe. Those combinations can dangerously slow your breathing.
• If you miss a dose, ask your clinician or pharmacist what to do rather than doubling up.
• Keep it stored safely, where others cannot take it.
• Do not stop suddenly. With regular use the body adjusts to this kind of medicine, so stopping abruptly can cause withdrawal effects, and in some cases seizures. When the time comes to stop, your clinician can lower it gradually, which is safer and more comfortable.

A word on dependence, plainly: with steady use, the body can come to expect a benzodiazepine. That physical adjustment is common and expected, and it is not the same as doing something wrong. It does mean that stopping quickly can cause withdrawal, which can be serious. It is exactly why we plan any change together and step down slowly rather than all at once. Separately from physical dependence, medicines in this group carry a risk of misuse and addiction, which can lead to overdose, especially with alcohol or opioids.

What to expect

This varies from person to person. Unlike some medications that take weeks to help, diazepam often has a calming effect fairly soon, which is part of why it is used the way it is. Because it is longer-acting, it can build up in the body, so a calm or drowsy feeling sometimes carries into the next day, more so in older adults or if your liver works more slowly. Over time, the right plan for you may change, and that is something you and your clinician revisit together. If it does not turn out to be the right fit, that is useful information, not a dead end, and there are other options. As always, this is case by case.

Side effects

Not everyone gets side effects, and some, like sleepiness, often ease as your body settles, though effects on memory and thinking may not. The lists below are possibilities, not certainties.

Possible more common side effects:

• Drowsiness or sleepiness, sometimes carrying into the next day
• Tiredness
• Muscle weakness
• Dizziness or feeling unsteady on your feet
• Slowed coordination or reaction time

Because it can slow your reactions, do not drive or do anything that needs full alertness until you know how it affects you. Drowsiness can be more noticeable in older adults. If any of these stick around or bother you, send a non-urgent message through the patient portal or bring it up at your next visit; often a small change helps.

Less common, but concerning side effects that could require emergency care:

• Signs of an allergic reaction: rash, hives, or swelling of the face, lips, tongue, or throat, or trouble breathing or swallowing
• Severe drowsiness, very slow or difficult breathing, or being hard to wake, especially if it is combined with alcohol, an opioid, or another sedative
• New or worsening agitation, confusion, hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that others do not), or unusual changes in mood or behavior
• A seizure, or severe confusion, shaking, or seeing or hearing things that are not there after missing doses, lowering the dose, or stopping
• Any new or worsening thoughts of harming yourself

For any of these, use the help options at the top of this page: call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department for a medical emergency or severe reaction, or call or text 988 for a mental health crisis.

If agitation, confusion, or hallucinations are the concern, tell the clinicians treating you everything you take, including this medication. They may decide to stop it.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding

If you are pregnant, thinking about it, or breastfeeding, this is worth going through together rather than settling from a page. What follows is what the research currently shows. Tell your clinician before changing anything, and do not stop suddenly on your own, because stopping a benzodiazepine quickly can cause withdrawal.

In pregnancy

Diazepam is not expected to raise the chance of birth defects. Older studies suggested a small increase, less than 1 in 100, in the chance of a cleft lip or cleft palate with use in the first trimester, but larger and better-designed recent studies have not found a higher chance of clefts or other birth defects. FDA labeling, looking at benzodiazepines as a group, notes that published studies do not show a clear link with major birth defects. It is not known whether diazepam raises the chance of miscarriage. For scale, about 3 in 100 babies are born with a birth defect, before any particular exposure is considered.

A few other findings come up often enough to name:

• Preterm birth, low birth weight, and head size. Some studies, but not all, suggest a higher chance of preterm birth, low birth weight, or a smaller head size with diazepam or other benzodiazepines. Many things can cause these outcomes, which makes the medication hard to separate from the rest.
• Later learning and behavior. It is not known whether diazepam affects later learning or behavior. Two studies that followed exposed children to 18 months or 3 years found them more likely to show behaviors such as anxiety, sadness, and fearfulness. A study of benzodiazepines as a group found a slightly higher chance of autism or ADHD, but the difference disappeared when exposed children were compared with their unexposed brothers and sisters, which suggests genetic factors play the larger part. Another study did not find a higher chance.

Symptoms in the newborn. Babies exposed late in pregnancy can have temporary symptoms after birth. FDA labeling describes two kinds. Sedation can show up as sleepiness, floppy muscle tone, or slowed breathing. Withdrawal can show up as irritability, restlessness, trembling, crying that is hard to settle, or trouble feeding. MotherToBaby adds breathing problems, jitteriness, a lot of crying, trouble holding a steady temperature, and floppiness with trouble latching on to feed, notes that some babies need a longer hospital stay, and expects the symptoms to go away within a few weeks. Not every exposed baby has them. The useful thing you can do is make sure the delivery team knows about the medication ahead of time, so someone is watching for it.

While breastfeeding

Diazepam passes into breast milk. The sources differ on what that means, so here is each one:

• FDA labeling advises against breastfeeding while taking diazepam, because of reports of sleepiness, poor feeding, and poor weight gain in babies exposed to benzodiazepines through breast milk.
• LactMed, the National Institutes of Health lactation database, says diazepam and a long-lasting substance the body makes from it build up in a breastfed baby with repeated doses, so timing feeds around doses does little. It cites a safety rating that finds diazepam possible to use with caution, and it prefers other medicines, especially with a newborn or premature baby. After a single dose, such as before a procedure, it says there is usually no need to wait before breastfeeding, though a short wait is the more cautious choice with a newborn or premature baby.
• MotherToBaby says diazepam passes into milk in small amounts and, with regular use, could build up in the baby and cause sleepiness or affect weight gain. It also says the benefits may outweigh the possible risks.

If diazepam is used regularly while breastfeeding, call the pediatrician if your baby seems unusually sleepy, feeds poorly, or is not gaining weight as expected.

If you are a man taking diazepam

Studies have not looked at whether diazepam affects male fertility or the chance of birth defects. In general, a father's medication use is unlikely to raise risks to a pregnancy.

Registries

There is a national registry that follows pregnancy outcomes for people taking psychiatric medications, including diazepam, and you can enroll yourself rather than waiting to be asked. It is listed in the references at the bottom of this page.

When to reach out, and where

For routine questions, side effects that can wait, or how things are going, send your clinician a message through the patient portal. These are part of your ongoing care and are answered in the normal course of a few business days, so they are best for things that are not urgent.

If something feels urgent, you do not need to wait for a reply. The help options at the top of this page are the fastest way to get care: 911 or the nearest emergency department for a medical emergency or severe reaction, or 988 any time for a mental health crisis or thoughts of self-harm.

Questions to ask your clinician

• What are you hoping diazepam will help with in my case?
• How and when will we know if it is working?
• What should I avoid while taking it?
• How does this fit with the other parts of my plan?
• What is the plan if this one turns out not to be the right fit?
• How will we handle stopping it, if and when we get there?