How long does Xanax last

How long does Xanax last?

Xanax is a drug-specific for anxiety disorders.

What are anxiety disorders?

Well, anxiety is a normal feeling that encourages your brain to react to stress and potential danger.

This type of anxiety is normal and ok.

But how about if the anxiety is extended all the time, and stopping you from practicing your normal life, going to work, school, family activities, and giving you the feeling of fear.

There are many types of anxiety disorders:

• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is three or more of the following symptoms which last for 6 months and more:
• Extreme and continuous worries
• Expecting disastrous events
• Restlessness
• Edginess
• Agitation
• Tiredness
• Concentrating difficulties
• Irritability
• Muscles tense
• Sleeping troubles
• The panic disorder causes sudden panic attacks and fears.

Symptoms include:

• Increased heartbeats
• Palpitations
• Sweating
• Shaking
• Breath shortness
• Chest pain
• Nausea
• Stomach pain
• Fainting
• Dizziness
• Chilling or overheating
• Unreality feelings
• Depersonalization (feeling detached from yourself)
• Fears of losing control
• Panic disorder may be associated with agoraphobia and maybe not.

Agoraphobia is fear from open places or any places that urge panic or trapping.

Xanax is approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for the management of these two types.

Xanax is also used in some off-label uses like Insomnia (sleeping problem), Premenstrual syndrome (some symptoms happening before the period of a woman, abdominal cramps, mood swings, food cravings, and other symptoms), depression, and anxiety happening due to depression.

How long does Xanax last?

Well, let’s find out first, how long does it take to work?

Xanax calms the nerves and makes you feel relaxed.

It is quickly absorbed in the bloodstream, and you start to feel its effects in under one hour.

Xanax reaches the peak concentration from 1 to 2 hours.

People with a history of abuse or those who have been taking for a long time and developed tolerance may take a longer time to feel these effects.

How long does Xanax last?

It is usually measured by something called the half-life, which is the time for half of the drug to be eliminated from the body.

The half-life of Xanax varies from 6.3 to 26.9 hours, depending on the patient.

It reaches 11 hours in healthy adults.

But it doesn’t mean that the drug is fully eliminated from the body, the body takes several half-lives to eliminate the drug.

Xanax takes within 2 to 4 days to be fully eliminated, but the sedative effects will be cleared before this time.

Factors affecting how long does Xanax last:

• Age
• Weight
• Race
• Metabolism (chemical transformation of the drug to simpler compounds easily excreted by the body)
• Liver function
• Duration of treatment
• Dosage
• Other used medications.

Age:

Elders take a longer time to eliminate any drug.

In healthy adults, it takes about 11 hours to fully eliminate Xanax, but elders take about 16.3 hours in healthy ones.

Weight:

Obese patients find difficulty in breaking Xanax more than thinner ones.

Half-life in obese people is between 9.9 and 40.4 hours.

The average half-life of Xanax is 21.8 hours.

Race:

Half-life in Asians is increased by 25% than Caucasians.

This may be a good thing to feel the effects for a longer time, and maybe a bad thing to increase the time for elimination from the system.

Metabolism:

Patients suffering from alcoholic liver disease take a longer time to be able to break Xanax, taking an average time of 1.7 hours.

Dosage:

Higher doses always take a longer time to be eliminated from the body.

Also, the duration of treatment, as long as you take the drug, as long as it takes for the patient to eliminate it.

Other taken medications:

Xanax is eliminated by an enzyme called cytochrome p450 3A.

So drugs working by inhibiting this enzyme interact with the elimination of Xanax.

This indicates that the effects of Xanax last for a longer time.

How long does Xanax last?

Medications that increase elimination time:

• Some antifungal agents like ketoconazole and itraconazole
• Antidepressant called nefazodone
• A drug used to treat OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) called fluvoxamine
• Some antibiotics like erythromycin and clarithromycin
• Opioids use in combination with Xanax lead to a very serious reaction which may cause coma and even death
• Cimetidine used for the treatment of heartburn
• Oral contraceptives

Another approach, medications that enhance the cytochrome p450 3A, will decrease the effect of Xanax as it makes the body breaks up faster, like carbamazepine a seizure medication, and St. John’s wort a herbal remedy.

Alcohol abuse:

Alcohol synergizes the effect of Xanax and elongates the time for Xanax to be cleared from the body.

The combination of Xanax with alcohol may lead to very dangerous side effects that can lead to death.

How long does Xanax last?

It is a very important title to be aware of to avoid the exposure of side effects and especially those that are possibly fatal.

 

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