Posted by Viridis on July 21, 2003, at 21:21:09
In reply to Klonopin tolerance, posted by Lainy on July 21, 2003, at 17:47:56
The pattern with Klonopin for many anxiety patients is that once the optimal dose is achieved, it tends to stay stable for a long time. I wonder if you were ever at "your" dose in the first place, or whether you just felt substantial relief initially (i.e., a big improvement), and now realize you could be doing better? I've done well at 1 mg/day, but my pdoc says that many anxiety patients need "several times" that amount. Apparently, he has a lot of patients who have stayed at the same dose for years, once the right dose was found. Some epileptics take up to 20 mg/day and tolerate it just fine.
Interestingly, I haven't built up a tolerance to Klonopin, yet with Xanax (which used to work for me in very small amounts), I now need to take 2-3X as much to get the same effect. I only take it occasionally and have no problems with it; I just need more when I do take it. I asked my pdoc whether this was likely to represent cross-tolerance from the Klonopin (which I take every day) and he said this was unlikely, given the structural differences between the two. Since I use it fairly rarely and always have extra, he just said I should take as much as I need at a time, and not worry unless I find myself needing it more and more often too (which hasn't been the case). Yet with the Klonopin itself, I haven't noticed any tolerance building.
poster:Viridis
thread:244031
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030718/msgs/244106.html