Why doesn't medication seem to have any effect on me whatsoever?

[roastinghot]

I suffer badly with panic attacks and recently they got so bad I was prescribed diazepam which I was really hoping would at least take the edge off. I started off on 2 mg=nothing. Then 5mg=nothing. Then 10mg=that very slightly took the edge off but no more so than going for a walk would have done and it wore off very fast - the GP told me I'd feel spaced out the entire day and probably the next morning too and I felt as alert as I ever do.

I'm diagnosed ADHD and took medication for a year and a half (different types) before stopping it as it was effective for about two hours and then wore off completely, regardless of dosage.

When I have a headache or other pain and I take paracetamol or neurofen, it does nothing.

Is there some kind of weird phenomenon where some medication just doesn't work on a person?! I'm not overweight, and I have extremely low tolerance for alcohol (as in I feel drunk after 1 small glass of wine), so I find it bizarre meds seem to go the opposite way.

Any experiences of the same? I was told diazepam knocked you out and it's done squat for me even at 10mg. I tried propranalol before that and it did nothing, even at the highest dose.

Some medical conditions can affect drug metabolism eg EDS. Some people can’t convert certain types of medication into a usable form or convert it very quickly.

You need to speak to your GP and see about alternatives.

“Diazepam is primarily metabolized by CYP3A4 and CYP2C19 to the major active metabolite, desmethyldiazepam. Approximately 2% of Europeans, 13% of East Asians, and as much as 57% of Oceanians have reduced or absent CYP2C19 enzyme activity (“poor metabolizers”) (2).”

Link

I'm a bit like you OP, medications like that don't seem to have much effect on me either. I don't have adhd or any other conditions. Pain medications work on me but sedating ones like diazepam don't have much effect at a dose some say knocks them right out.

I work as a nurse and I've seen tolerance to medication really varies. If a patient needs to be sedated, the dose is titrated (started low and increased if necessary so the patient receives the lowest effective dose), some patients end up needing quite a bit, others not so much.

ADHD can apparently cause this, I always need extra injections at the dentist. For things like diazepam and your ADHD meds they should be titrated as coconut describes.

Are you a redhead? I read studies about red heads having much higher tolerance to certain drugs and even require greater doses of GA.

I have EDS and this is certainly the case for me. It's quite problematic really and can be dangerous when things are metabolised too quickly.

Things such as local anaesthesia don't work and it requires higher doses of anaesthetic to sedate me which always causes delay and uncertainty when I have surgery (which is somewhat frequent, more than I would prefer). Diazepam wouldn't aid sleep for me at any dose. Medications are funny things, I took an anti anxiety medication once for which the lower doses were known to induce sleep and fatigue, but higher threshold doses did not at all from first usage. It can be a real challenge to get on the correct dose for you of any medication, everyone is different.

Substances won't metabolise the same across the board, it will depend on their compound and receptors etc, it is perfectly possible to be sensitive to one thing therefore and seem to be 'immune' to another.

I would just speak to the GP or ask for an appointment with the surgeries clinical pharmacist if there is one to discuss whether there is an alternative medication to try.

My ADHD meds were properly titrated each time, it didn't seem to make a difference.

I'm not a redhead, no.

Never realised it was related to EDS - I have no other symptoms, is it worth asking the GP?

I know this is a few months old but I am exactly the same. Have taken 50mg diazepam and felt not much. Have to have extra injections at dentist. Sedation I’m hospital doesn’t work. It’s annoying and bizarre!!

No ADHD/ EDS very slight red hair

What’s the science behind the red hair thing?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210403153628.htm

I'm a red head who needs massive doses of stuff for it to work, always have extra local anaesthetic and ping awake from GA asking what's to eat

I had puerperal psychosis after one of my dc. I was taking a cocktail of medication that the psychiatrist said would have felled a horse but had no effect on me. He said I must have a super efficient liver. I ended up taking above the recommended maximum dose on a few to have any effect. The positive though was that I could come off them quickly with no withdrawal side effects either. I suppose the super efficient liver was also the reason that when a teen I could drink a huge amount without getting drunk and the reason I stopped drinking before I was twenty.

@hiredandsqueak that's interesting... I can drink massive amounts despite not drinking for years at a time
At one point I was on naproxen, paracetamol, diazepam, dihydrocodeine and oramorph and still working FT (all max doses)

@Pelo22 I'm just five foot tall and very petite but I could drink men under the table and I'd be barely tipsy. It was very strange. I haven't drunk for more than thirty years because I didn't particularly like the taste so always drank vodka and couldn't see the point when I was always sober