Benzodiazepines

There are over 50 different, FDA-approved benzodiazepines. Screening assays for benzodiazepines need to have wide cross-reactivity to be effective. False-positive screens for benzodiazepines are common. Confirmation with mass spectroscopy is very useful but can be difficult since there are so many benzodiazepine analogs to detect. Most labs only choose to confirm the 6-10 most common benzodiazepines. There are different classes of benzodiazepines based on their kinetics: Short-acting benzodiazepines have a median elimination half-life of 1-12 hours, intermediate-acting benzodiazepines have an average elimination half-life of 12-40 hours, and those that are long-acting have an average elimination half-life of 40-250 hours.