Posted by jlo820 on August 10, 2003, at 12:25:25
In reply to Re: KLONOPIN- dose and side effects » jlo820, posted by cubbybear on August 10, 2003, at 3:10:50
You read my message wrong. I was clearly speaking about the use of benzodiazepines as a sedative/hypnotic (i.e. for insominia).
It is a basic fact that these medications, for most, will loose their effectivness as muscle relaxants, sedatives, and hypnotics, without an increase in dosage, over a relativley short period of time. This is in comparison to their use as anxiolytic and anti-panic agents.
"Tolerance to the various actions of benzodiazepines develops at variable rates and to different degrees. Tolerance to the hypnotic effects develops rapidly and sleep recordings have shown that sleep patterns, including deep sleep (slow wave sleep) and dreaming (which are initially suppressed by benzodiazepines), return to pre-treatment levels after a few weeks of regular benzodiazepine use. Similarly, daytime users of the drugs for anxiety no longer feel sleepy after a few days."
Further..."Benzodiazepines are initially very, efficacious in inducing and prolonging sleep. However, tolerance to the hypnotic effects develops rapidly, sometimes after only a few days of regular use.[15,16] Sleep latency, Stage 2 sleep, SWS, REMS and intrasleep awakenings all tend to return to pretreatment levels after a few weeks." - Prof. Heather Ashton
For anxiety, some people can take the same dosage of a benzodiazepine for years without increasing their dosage.
I am not just pulling this stuff from nowhere, I have done hours of research on benzodiazepines for both academic and personal reasons.
poster:jlo820
thread:248981
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030807/msgs/249791.html