benzodiazepine_conversion: Benzodiazepine Conversion Calculator

In cliot: Clinical Indices and Outcomes Tools

Benzodiazepine Conversion Calculator

Description

Calculates the estimated equivalent dose between different benzodiazepines. The calculation typically uses 10 mg of oral Diazepam as the standard reference unit to derive equivalencies for other agents (e.g., based on the Ashton Manual and other clinical pharmacological data).

Usage

benzodiazepine_conversion(source_drug, source_dose, target_drug)

Arguments

source_drug	String. The name of the benzodiazepine currently being taken. Options: "alprazolam", "chlordiazepoxide", "clobazam", "clonazepam", "clorazepate", "diazepam", "estazolam", "flurazepam", "lorazepam", "midazolam_oral", "midazolam_iv", "nitrazepam", "oxazepam", "quazepam", "temazepam", "triazolam".
source_dose	Numeric. The dose of the source drug in milligrams (mg).
target_drug	String. The name of the benzodiazepine to convert to. (Same options as source_drug).

Value

A list containing:

Input	The provided source drug and dose.
Output	The calculated equivalent dose of the target drug.
Diazepam_Equivalent_mg	The calculated dose standardized to oral Diazepam.
Note	Clinical warning regarding cross-tolerance and variability.

References

Ashton H. Protocol for the treatment of benzodiazepine withdrawal. University of Newcastle upon Tyne. 2002.

Examples

# Example 1: Convert 1mg Alprazolam to Diazepam
# 0.5mg Alprazolam ~= 10mg Diazepam, so 1mg ~= 20mg
benzodiazepine_conversion("alprazolam", 1, "diazepam")

# Example 2: Convert 2mg Lorazepam to Clonazepam
# 1mg Lorazepam ~= 0.5mg Clonazepam, so 2mg ~= 1mg
benzodiazepine_conversion("lorazepam", 2, "clonazepam")

cliot documentation built on Dec. 1, 2025, 1:06 a.m.