Posted by med_empowered on July 19, 2005, at 13:18:19
hey! I've taken both benzos at low to moderate-doses and Buspar at more high-end doses (the usual starting dose is 15mgws; 5mgsX3 daily; I started at 30 and went to 45). It worked pretty well; I gave it up b/c I've decided to try a med-free period and see if I can learn to cope with my issues without medications. Anyway, Buspar's been around forever, and its available in a generic (ask your doc for this form specifically). At first, there was some speculation that Buspar might be some sort of atypical antipsychotic, but that apparently didn't pan out. It definitely works as a selective, partial serotonin antagonist, and also has some effects on dopamine that really aren't well understood. The dopamine effects raises the possibility of akathisia, tardive dyskinesia, etc. Buspar can cause an akathisia-like syndrome, and there are reports of uncontrollable movements and tremor/muscle stiffness, just like you'd see with antipsychotics. About 10% of those who take Buspar stop taking it due to side-effects, which also include headache and nausea. Interestingly enough, there aren't any reports of tardive dyskinesia from Buspar, as far as I am aware; even at massive doses (100s of mgs per day), no cases of TD popped up in any studies of the medication. For me, Buspar worked well; it was a little sedating at first (I did start at a kinda high dose) and its more sedating (and effective) if its taken with food. After 3weeks-1month, there was a definite overall "calming" effect without any noticeable impact on my cognitiion or emotions, which was nice. The number of panic attacks I experienced was reduced significantly, so I was able to cut back benzo to use very rare, as-needed use. From what I understand, some people think Buspar works best with an anti-depressant, which is how I took it. This may be due to some sort of synergistic activity on various neurotransmitters, or it may be because of the close relationship between depresion and anxiety...who knows. Most studies I've seen show that adding Buspar to an anti-depressant usually results in faster response time and reduced side-effects (less anger, hostility, agitation, insomnia), but overall the augmentation strategy doesn't boost response rates per se. When added to antipsychotics, there is some indication that Buspar may actually reduce akathisia, tardive dyskinesia, and anxiety, thus making neuroleptic therapy more tolerable and the positive results more robust; however, this is an under-researched application of buspar, so it should probably be taken with a grain of salt. As for agitation...Buspar does seem to reduce hostility and aggression kind of like benzos, but without the addictive potential or withdrawal side-effects. It doesn't work for everyone and some people despise the stuff while others love it. It seems to be able to counter some of the ill-effects of antidepressants, especially the SSRIs; if your agitation is lexapro-induced, adding buspar could be of great help. Then again...if your lexapro isn't all that helpful, tapering off the lexapro would be cheaper and lead to fewer side effects. If worst comes to worst, agitation can be reduced by increasing the lithium and/or adding a neuroleptic, preferably an atypical. But...speaking from personal experience, those approaches expose you to way more side-effects than most people would be willing to deal with, so its probably best to find another method (tapering lexapro, adding buspar, adding a benzo) to deal with the agitation. GOod luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:530117
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050718/msgs/530117.html