Problem: A 70-year-old woman is in your office complaining of recently having trouble maintaining her balance after taking diazepam (valium). She occasionally takes diazepam when she feels anxious and has trouble sleeping. She has a 15-year history of taking diazepam.
Q1. Explain the cause of this patient's difficulty in maintaining her balance?
Diazepam is a benzodiazepine drug. In general, these drugs can cause sedation. Loss of balance is a known, potential, side effect of the medication (Sinah, 2021). The half-life of this drug is twenty to fifty hours. It is also known that geriatric patients may have a prolonged elimination time of this medication (ASHP, 2020). So, while the patient has been taking this medication for 15 years, at the age of 70, she may be developing a change in the elimination of the drug from her body. She may need to decrease the dosage that she is taking.