Posted by Anthony Quest on May 3, 2004, at 13:52:55
In reply to Re: klonopin help with withdrawing, posted by linnie on May 3, 2004, at 12:18:15
Klonopin is a member of the benzodiazepine class of drugs. It's close relatives are Xanax, Valium, Librium, Ativan, Dalmane, Halcion, Restorial, Prosom. Those are all brand names. The generic names all ends in "am"
Klonopin - "clon-azepam
Valium - "di-azepam"
Xanax - "alprazolam"
Ativan - "lorazepam"
Restoril - "temazipam"Note the following: For any drug, go to www.rxlist.com - type in the drug to get information about it.
All of these drugs are marketed for different purposes but they act essentially the same way in the brain. The chief difference is the half-life and duration of action. There is not a lot of data showing that different benzos act on different types of neuroreceptors.
Xanax is marketed for anxiety
Klonopin is marketed as antiseizure drug
Restoril is marketed as a sleep aid
Ativan is used to control seizures.This is purely marketing. The main difference that you should consider is half-life. Xanax with one of the shortest half lifes peaks quickly in the blood and the drop off is attributed to giving some users a "high". This is why Xanax is frequently not the drug of choice and some practitioners never use it, preferring instead Klonopin.
Klonopin's half life is 8-10 hours approximately. Xanax is 2-4. Valium is more 18-24 hours.
So to answer your question all these drugs do the following:
relax muscles
produce somnolence
decrease anxiety
stabilize moodIf you find yourself unable to fall asleep, then taking one of these drugs will produce sleep by calming you down so you won't be anxious or if taken in a more potent dose simply make you to relaxed to stay awake.
For sleep, if you have trouble falling alseep then taking klonopin makes sense since it works throughout the night. For people with periodic limb movement disorder, this is the drug of choice.
If you have anxiety, Klonopin's draw back is that it works for a long time. If your anxiety is transient, you will feel the drug working longer than perhaps you want it to, in which case Xanax is used for it's short duration.
There is debate as to whether Xanax is ever appropriate. Most people with anxiety doctors believe have an underlying cause that should be treated while Xanax only provides symptom relieve.
Note, they can all be taken PRN - but doing so will still lead to dependence.I speak from experience, if these improve your quality of life, it will be hard not to use them when you "need" them to feel better - either to sleep in my case or maybe not to be miserbale with anxiety in yours.
The result is that you should be prepared to take these medications for the rest of your life. I am sure some people have succesfully quit, but after many years of use, the withdrawal can last indefinitely and the anxiety or insomnia will be much much worse. Even so, I would still have chosen to take Klonopin.
If you want to try this PRN, I suggest you get a limited RX with no refills.
There are other better ways to deal with anxiety by the way. The drawback to Klonopin and all the others are there dependence producing potential.
Note I don't say addictive because with the exception of Xanax, it's unusual for people to get high from these drugs. It's not unusual for people to find their lives better and use them for extended periods of time in which they realize their bodies no longer function absent the drug. I recommend alternatives though, see if SSRIs work or perhaps Neurontin.
Neurontin 300 tid po actually worked better for my anxiety than anything else. This drug cannot produce physical dependence any way close to benzos.
poster:Anthony Quest
thread:341361
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20040409/msgs/342867.html