Something old, something new: a successful case of meprobamate withdrawal

Meprobamate, a benzodiazepine-like drug, was commonly prescribed for anxiety in the 1960s and 1970s, but fell out of favour, at least in part, due to the risk of dependence, for which there is little published evidence to guide clinical management. We discuss a 70-year-old man with a 45-year history of meprobamate dependency and multiple failed previous withdrawal attempts who was successfully withdrawn from meprobamate using diazepam during a 2-week inpatient stay on a specialist Addictions ward. An appropriate diazepam dose was established using the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment scale for benzodiazepines (CIWA-B). This dose was then slowly reduced over 12 days. Multidisciplinary input, especially psychological therapy tackling his underlying anxiety disorder during his admission, was thought to be particularly helpful.