Low dose, oral lorazepam: a safe and effective adjuvant to antiemetic therapy.

Twenty-five patients with acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia undergoing 41 cycles of chemotherapy with daunorubicin/cytosine arabinoside (ara-C) or with etoposide/ara-C received metoclopramide (MCP; 0.5 mg/kg 6 hourly i.v.) or MCP (same dose) plus oral lorazepam (1 mg/d) during and 24 hours following the chemotherapy as antiemetic medication. Control of vomiting was achieved is 55% (complete 5%, partial 50%) of the patients receiving MCP alone and in 100 percent (complete 76.1%; partial 23.8%) of those receiving MCP plus lorazepam (p less than 0.001). Eighteen of the 21 patients (85.7%) receiving MCP plus lorazepam opted for the same antiemetic regimen as compared to six of the 20 (30%) receiving MCP alone (p less than 0.01). One patient in each group developed mild sedation during the treatment. It is concluded that oral lorazepam is an effective and safe adjuvant to MCP for the control of vomiting during cancer chemotherapy.