Posted by yxibow on October 25, 2006, at 6:01:41
In reply to Phenobarbital for Anxiety, posted by mikeyb on October 24, 2006, at 16:08:31
> Please help!! have tried alot of the the antidepressants and benzodiazepines,
> as well as a range of anticonvulsants and antipsychotics, nothing has has helped my anxiety,it seems medications just go straight through me!.. am kind of running out of ideas. Am trying CBT but just cant see it ever being able to control the physical symptoms, extreme tension in the head being the main problem.
For getting rid of the physical symptoms, but not the actual root cause of anxiety, propranolol (or similar non-cardioselective beta blockers, its the most common) is actually the best for what you mention. Plus maybe the slew of migraine medication for any possibility of physical head pain that you have.
There is the old Miltown (or Soma) which might relax your head, but I wouldn't go down that road as it is not as dangerous as a benzodiazepine but it is much more habituating unless you had a tiny dose and kept to it.
>
> Does anyone have any experience with phenobarbital (or other barbituates) for long term management of anxiety? Even cycling it e.g month on month off? or other ideas? GHB etc Thanks! Please!!
>GHB/Xyrem is a very restricted drug, you have to have a condition for it. At least in the US.
I assume you've tried BuSpar (works for around 30% of people).
How long have you given a trial for all the above medications -- I don't mean to be rude, but I just get a sense of "a range of..." and often people quit a medication after just two weeks when in fact it may take two months for some positive effects.
Phenobarbital is going to do nothing more than a good long term trial of Valium, except much more dangerous. They're both GABA-A agonists and the range between the MED (minimum effective dose) and LD50 (50% of rats, dogs, etc.) for barbiturates is far closer than trying a sky high dose of Valium (like 100+ mg, for example). Lung collapse can occur on overdoses much more than the rare events on benzodiazepines and you would have to give up taking alcohol pretty much. That's why benzodiazepines were created in 1958.
Also when you say "medications go through you", you may be a fast metabolizer. I know I am. I take greater than "typical" doses of certain medications for my complex disorder. You may pass things through the P450 system in your liver much faster than others. This is not a fantasy, genetically we are all a little bit different.
Just a few wordsand hope
-- tidings
Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:697393
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061020/msgs/697545.html