Posted by cubbybear on April 13, 2004, at 3:52:34
In reply to Re: Long-term clonazepam » Guy, posted by Sad Panda on April 12, 2004, at 21:06:03
> > I am trying to decide if I should ask my pdoc to let me try clonazepam alone for my (major)anxiety disorder. My worst problem is insomnia and sleep-related anxiety. I tried clonazepam in the past at 1 mg per day, but it stopped working for sleep after a few months. Now I'm wondering if I should have increased the dose to 3 or 4 mg. I have heard that dose is common for anxiety disorders and that many people remain on a stable dose for years and years. My fear is that it would just poop out again, leaving me stuck on the higher dose. I don't understand people who say benzos can't be used for sleep. What good is a med if it doesn't let you sleep?
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> You can't use Benzos for sleep long term because they give a very poor quality sleep & make sleep patterns worse.
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> You are far better off using one of the sedating AD's like Mirtazapine, Trimpiramine or Doxepin as they produce quality sleep & improve sleep paterns. You could still use clonazepam during the day for anxiety, long term use would depend on how you react to them.
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> Cheers,
> Panda.In my experience, the quality of sleep seemed unchanged and definitely improved in quantity while I was taking Klonopin. It helped my depression-related sleep disorder a lot, and continued doing so for many months after I started taking it at 4 mg./day.
Benzo drugs commonly lose efficacy as hypnotics and the dose has to be increased, but I was lucky since this did not happen with me. If anything, I continued reaping the benefits of Klonopin throughout my taper down to zero. Maybe my case is unusual, but I definitely feel that Guy should try using Klonopin at perhaps the 2.0-2.5 mg. level to see how this dosage affects insomnia. His problem is anxiety and insomnia, not depression.
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poster:cubbybear
thread:335689
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040412/msgs/335829.html