Valium is one of the trade names of Diazepam; a drug used to treat conditions such as anxiety, insomnia, tetanus, mania, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, eclampsia, and various other wide-ranging medical complaints. Valium is also used in conjunction with anti-depressants to treat depression and anxiety.
Valium is known to be an effective treatment for epilepsy, but owing to its addictiveness, is considered unsuitable for long-term treatment.
Valium can be taken in pill form, by injection into the veins or muscles or as a suppository. When injected into the blood stream, Valium gets to work in between 1 and 5 minutes; when injected into the muscle, the drug will usually begin working somewhere between 15 to 30 minutes later. In either case, the Valium will be actively working in the system for 15 minutes to an hour after it has begun its effect, but intramuscular injections are less favored as the drug is not so easily absorbed into the system this way.
Valium is a powerful drug and easily finds it way around the body, passing through the blood-brain barrier, excreted into breast milk and urine, collecting in muscle tissue and building up to a high concentration in the body over long periods of use. Valium is metabolised in the liver, but the reserve of the drug which builds up in the body tends to be found in the adipose tissue.
Active ingredients found in Valium, other than diazepam, are temazepam and oxazepam. These are broken down in the body, and very little of the Valium will be excreted in the urine in its original form.
