Posted by Tony P on May 25, 2004, at 5:01:20
In reply to klonipin trouble :(, posted by AntiTrust on May 18, 2004, at 16:55:18
The short answer is, klonopin (in reasonable quantities) is gone for all practical purposes (i.e. general effect on your system) in about 2-3 days for most people. This can vary considerably from person to person (see below), and depends on how much and for how many days you have been taking it. Tests are a different story.
As far as drug tests go, I have no idea what common workplace or legal drug tests look for, but I doubt that they generally look for small amounts of klonopin. Why would they - klonopin is legally prescribed for several conditions, and although one is cautioned about driving carefully, there is no interdiction or legal limit that I know of. Of course, given a specific request, a chemist can test for extremely small amounts (parts per billion) of almost anything in blood, urine or whatever -- but only if they're actually looking for it. Most med. lab test forms have a checkbox for specific drug-level tests, but this is mainly so the MD can make sure you are getting enough/not too much of drugs which have to be monitored carefully for safety (such as lithium) -- not for checking up on patients "good behaviour", if this what you are worried about.
What kind of drug test are you concerned about??
I am also not clear whether you are already taking some klonopin (and how much) and asking for more, or what. Doctors tend to react negatively to patients asking for "more" of a potentially addictive drug - a red light goes on in their head saying "drug-seeking behaviour" or "tolerance developing - potential addiction". Some of the reasons I can think of that would override this concern might be: no benefit from a short trial of a relatively low dose, a sudden change in symptoms or personal circumstances (e.g. visible anxiety attack or major life-stress event), or a known cause or requirement such as side-effects of other medication.
This whole family of drugs is a realistic concern for tolerance and addiction, but klonopin is generally considered one of the safest. Many people on Psychobabble (and off) are taking it long-term with no ill effects. My MD (who knows all about my prior addiction history) had no hesitation in prescribing 4 mg of klonopin/day when I had a severe anxiety attack in the middle of ramping up the dose of an anti-depressant, and I am still taking 3 mg/day several months later.
More details and technical references follow if you're interested:
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From a recent post by Anthony Quest:http://www.dr-bob.org/tips/bzd.html
http://www.betterway2health.com/Benzoequiv.htm
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Also: www.vhpharmsci.com/VHFormulary/Tools/Benzodiazepines-comparison.htm (older I think).The half-life (time for the amount of active drug in your system to drop to 50%) of klonopin is given in different places as anywhere from 18-50 hours. Half-lives of some drugs (incuding klonopin & other benzodiazepines) seem to be very hard to measure consistently &/or vary greatly from person to person, as you can see from the tables in the references. And since klonopin's half-life is around 24 hrs., taking it over several days will result in a build-up to a so-called "steady state" concentration which may be considerably greater than the individual dose.
My estimate is that klonopin would be down to less than 1% of the original (or steady-state) amount in about six to ten days, 15 days max., but again it could vary a lot from person to person. That order of amount would be testable, as I said earlier, if a chemist were asked to do so, but would be of no concern to anyone that I can think of.
Tony P
> ummmmmmmm.........I have a 'confession'
> I have been taking some of my husband rx klonipin and it works so well for me but my PDOC will not write a script for me, they know I take it as well for panic attacks.
> so anyways-my QUESTION IS THIS:
> how long does KLONIPIN stay in your system and cna it be detected by a urine and/or blood test???
>
> THANKS GANG@!!!!!
poster:Tony P
thread:348292
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20040409/msgs/350337.html