Diazepam, lorazepam and midazolam are used by several million patients each year who are undergoing surgery. These benzodiazepines are used either intramuscularly or intravenously as pre-anesthetic agents for their muscle relaxing and sedative properties, as well as for their amnestic effects. They are also used as anesthetic agents, both alone and in combination with other drugs. The use of benzodiazepines during surgery provides for more effective control of anesthesia and allows the use of lower doses of other drugs, and thereby may avoid more serious untoward effects, such as seizures. Benzodiazepines for the treatment of movement disorders .
Benzodiazepines are potent muscle relaxers.
As such, they are frequently used to treat muscle spasticity which occurs as a consequence of spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, and tetanus. They are effective for a rarer disease, Stiff Man Syndrome, for which no other drug has been found effective. Benzodiazepines for the acute treatment of agitated psychosis. Acutely psychotic patients who are manic or schizophrenic frequently pose an imminent danger to themselves or those around them. Adjunctive use of benzodiazepines in the early phases of treatment has provided physicians with a rapid and humane way of calming agitated patients without risking the neurological side effects observed with the neuroleptics when higher doses are required.