When disease impairs clearance of drugs, multiple-dose therapy may result in cumulation. The disposition of chlordiazepoxide (CDX), 50 mg infused intravenously over 10 min, was studied in 14 normal subjects and in 11 patients with biopsy-proven cirrhosis. In the normal subjects, mean (+/- SE) kinetic parameters were: t 1/2 beta, 10.0 (+/- 0.9) hr; Vd, 0.38 (+/- 0.04) l/kg; clearance, 0.54 (+/- 0.13) ml/min/kg. Clearance of total drug correlated inversely with serum albumin concentration in normal subjects (r = -0.63). Values in cirrhotic patients were: t 1/2 beta, 34.9 (+/- 8.7) hr; Vd, 0.34 (+/- 0.024) 1/kg; and clearance, 0.185 (+/- 0.34) ml/min/kg. Desmethylchlordiazepoxide (DMCDX), the major metabolite of CDX, appeared in blood of cirrhotic patients less rapidly than in normal subjects. Severity of liver disease did not indicate the impairment of CDX clearance. In 5 of the same cirrhotic patients, mean t 1/2 beta for oxazepam (7.1 +/- 1.0 hr) was 27% longer than in control subjects (5.6 +/- 0.7 hr); the difference is not significant. On kinetic grounds oxazepam may be preferable to chlordiazepoxide in cirrhotic patients since its elimination kinetics are not greatly altered in cirrhosis.