To answer this question “Is etizolam addictive?”, the first thing that needs to be known is what exactly Etizolam is. Many have heard about Valium and Xanax drugs that are used for the treatment of anxiety and insomnia. These drugs work by relaxing the muscles and conducting sleep apart from many other sedating effects. These drugs are benzodiazepines, and etizolam can be called as an analog of benzos.
There is a little difference in chemical composition between benzodiazepines and etizolam though in the fact that the benzene ring present in benzo is replaced by a ring composed of a fusion of thiopene and triazole. Hence, it can be concluded that etizolam also is a psychoactive drug like benzodiazepine, but with moderate dependence liability than traditional benzos. Please remember that using etizolam as medicine is not yet legal and thus do not try this for any personal medical needs.
Is etizolam addictive?
To discuss addiction associated with the consumption of etizolam, the fact that etizolam faces legality issues in many countries gives an impression of its addictive drawbacks. Of course, being a sedative drug, etizolam is bound to be abused for addiction. However, the little change of chemical composition when compared with traditional benzodiazepines has this lower dependence and tolerance liabilities and withdrawal syndrome than the benzos. Probably this is the reason why World Health Organisation (WHO), in 1991, published publicly conflicting reports that condemn the claims of etizolam abuse as initially documented in the medical literature. But, this does not mean that etizolam is not addictive.
It has been found out that, due to its lower dependence liability, users need to consume etizolam for a longer period than traditional benzos to get addicted to it. And hence, comparatively, etizolam faces more lenient legal norms than other drugs similar to it. And of course, there is this reverse tolerance theory associated with etizolam which works in its favor. Normally, people consuming etizolam for a prolonged amount of time have reported that the sedative effect of etizolam increases with time. A 2mg dose is enough to give the same effect as it used to give for a 4mg dose, say two months earlier, if taken regularly.
And why?
Being a thienodiazepine derivative, etizolam is highly hypnotic and if soaked up rapidly can make human body to reach peak plasma level in 30 minutes to 2 hours with an average elimination half-life of 3.5 hours. Furthermore, the anxiolytic effect of etizolam is fairly high, which means a high dose of etizolam causes a substantial reduction in time taken to fall asleep and a number of awakenings in between sleep, plus an increase in total hours of sleep. All these facts make etizolam a desirable drug for abusers.
It is also a reality that etizolam if prescribed legitimately, is used for these common reasons: to alleviate anxiety and stress, to induce sleep faster, to relax muscles and get rid of panic attacks. Of course, to make these influences, etizolam needs to have skeletal muscle relaxant, amnesic and anticonvulsant properties and hence it is prone to get abused. Etizolam also escalates the effect of other potent drugs such as cocaine, heroin and alcohol. These are some of the reasons because of which etizolam is abused and addictive in nature.
