Posted by cactus on April 5, 2008, at 16:15:15
In reply to Benzos and RLS, scrunched feet, posted by shasling on April 5, 2008, at 12:35:42
> Ok so I have this friend who takes benzos (klonopin, xanax) to get to sleep. They help him sleep, but before they do he always suffers a period of agitation, suffering very restless legs and his feet and toes keep clenching and scrunching up. Has anyone experienced anything like this from taking benzos?
>
> Thanks
I too have Restless Legs Syndrome as well as PLMS (Periodic limb movements in sleep) I didn't like the anti parkinson drugs in the end, they made me vomit even at small doses. My sleep specialist told me klonopin (clonazepam) helps you sleep through the symptoms, more so than address the problem. I personally have not found this to be true. Ever since starting clonazepam, it has stopped it dead in it's tracks and I don't get it at all anymore when I jump into bed.There are other options out there as mentioned above, Valium works too but klonopin is better for me. I will be sticking with benzo's but there is...
Some mood stabilizers like gabapentin (Neurontin)
different types of Anti Parkinson medications, most of which are extremely expensive, especially the newer ones mirapex and requip/repreve
then opiates as a last resort
The best thing is though, he has been diagnosed. It took me years of trying to explain to doctors what my legs where doing in bed at night. It took a sleep study for sleep apnea to show it up, YAY
One last thing which, he probably already knows and the other stuff I mentioned above included is, stay away from anti histamines (old school ones) and anti psychotics. They have the probability to greatly agitate RLS. take care and good luck
poster:cactus
thread:821686
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080330/msgs/821726.html