Posted by bassman on March 18, 2006, at 8:03:07
In reply to Was prescribed Xanax XR..need feedback, posted by BIGDaddyachmed69 on March 17, 2006, at 23:31:48
Wow, do I ever have input! I have panic disorder, decided that the 1 mg/day Klonopin I'm taking was making me depressed and decided to switch to my ol' buddy, Xanax, which seeems to have an antidepressant effect on me. The XR seemed to make sense because then it would be somewhat like the long half-life of Klonopin (other than it would drop like a rock at some point). I added the XR to the Klonopin I was taking before decreasing the Klonopin, and bad things happened-I ended up with panic in the mornings. It may be because I tried 0.5 mg XR once a day...I had tried the 1 mg XR previously and no such effect. If you do decide to try the XR, I'd suggest considering 1 mg XR twice a day or something other than just taking the XR once a day-even if you look at the serum concentration graphs on the Xanax XR site, they drop below the point where Xanax would "remind you" it's time for more medication well before 24 hours.
Just as a person who has been a research chemist in the pharmaceutical area for 25+ years, I wouldn't take the generic XR. If you want to save money by taking the generic, take the brand name XR first, be sure it works and then switch to the generic. And don't be surprised if the generic acts differently. If you are interested, I could tell you many, many reasons to avoid generics-but that is a story for a different day.
IR Xanax works very well for me, even at the 0.25 mg level. BTW, if there are dependence concerns with the Xanax IR, I found that the switching to Klonopin followed by decreasing the Klonopin really worked well. When I withdrew from 4 mg Xanax/day, I had to taper very slowly-with the Klonopin, I decreased the dose by 0.25 mg and felt a litle stimulated the next day and that was it. I decreased Xanax once during the taper process by 0.25 mg and I didn't stop shaking for two weeks. The point is, if you need to decrease the Xanax at some point, it may be easier than your doc thinks.
In my opinion, if meds are working, why mess with them? I think most of us have have the great idea that we were going to decrease or eliminate a med only to really mess ourselves up for a couple months. If you are doing well on the 2 mg Xanax IR/day, why change-because your DOC is uncomfortable? Maybe you could remind him that you are coming to see him to help you, not him...:>}
poster:bassman
thread:621544
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060315/msgs/621611.html