Abstracts

Rationale: Benzodiazepines are often used in the chronic management of refractory epilepsy, and specifically clobazam now has a formal indication for "seizures associated with the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome." Because patients are often transitioned from one benzodiazepine to another (including to clobazam), the question of dose equivalence among various benzodiazepines is frequently asked. Methods: Using diazepam 5 mg as the arbitrary benchmark, we asked each epileptologist for their estimated equivalent dosage of lorazepam, clonazepam, and clobazam. For each drug, mean, median, standard deviation, standard error, and coefficient of variability were calculated. Results: See table. Conclusions: Variability among experts is largest for clobazam, whereas it is mild to moderate for lorazepam and clonazepam. This is not unexpected since clobazam was only recently made available in the U.S. Studies on the dosage equivalence among benzodiazepines are needed in the future. Acknowledgement: Biostatistics Core at Clinical & Translational Science Institute (University of South Florida) performed the statistical analysis.