NutriStack
Lorazepam and Passionflower, a caution.
Passionflower has anxiolytic and GABA-related activity that may stack with lorazepam's benzodiazepine effect. The result can be more sedation, slowed thinking, poor coordination, or falls. Risk rises with alcohol, opioids, sleep medicines, respiratory disease, older age, or taking lorazepam more often than prescribed.
One pair, every claim cited. The two substances, the type, the mechanism, the recommendation, and the primary literature.
Same shape as the other 1,729 pairs in the public database.
From the interaction database
What the row says.
Every entry follows the same shape: what is happening, the mechanism, the recommendation, and the primary literature.
At a glance
- Substances
- Lorazepam and Passionflower
- Pair type
- Caution
- Evidence (highest tier)
- Emerging
- Source citations
- 2 sources
- Stack Score effect
- −5 to your Stack Score (per scored caution row).
- Scope
- Supplement × Prescription
- Last verified
- May 30, 2026
Caution · Emerging evidence
Caution
What is happening. Passionflower has anxiolytic and GABA-related activity that may stack with lorazepam's benzodiazepine effect. The result can be more sedation, slowed thinking, poor coordination, or falls. Risk rises with alcohol, opioids, sleep medicines, respiratory disease, older age, or taking lorazepam more often than prescribed.
Mechanism. Passionflower extracts can activate GABA(A)-related signaling and have demonstrated clinical anxiolytic activity. Lorazepam is a benzodiazepine positive allosteric modulator at GABA(A) receptors, creating additive pharmacodynamic CNS depression.
Recommendation. Avoid passionflower with lorazepam unless your prescriber has reviewed the combination. If used, avoid alcohol and other sedatives, use caution with driving, and stop passionflower if you feel unusually sleepy, confused, or unsteady. Get urgent help for severe sedation or slowed breathing.
Sources (2)
- Akhondzadeh S, Naghavi HR, Vazirian M, Shayeganpour A, Rashidi H, Khani M. Passionflower in the treatment of generalized anxiety: a pilot double-blind randomized controlled trial with oxazepam. J Clin Pharm Ther. 2001;26(5):363-367. PMID 11679026
- Elsas SM, Rossi DJ, Raber J, White G, Seeley CA, Gregory WL, et al. Passiflora incarnata L. extracts elicit GABA currents in hippocampal neurons in vitro, and show anxiogenic and anticonvulsant effects in vivo, varying with extraction method. Phytomedicine. 2010;17(12):940-949. PMID 20382514
Stack Score
How this pair moves the number.
Effect on the composite score
If both Lorazepam and Passionflower are in the same stack, this pair applies −5 to your Stack Score (per scored caution row).
The full algorithm, the clamping rules, and four worked stacks are documented at /methodology/stack-score.
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