Posted by Rick on April 21, 2004, at 2:48:10
In reply to Questions to those who responded to Klonopin post., posted by BRC on April 18, 2004, at 18:27:57
>I knew that one of the drawbacks to Klonopin was depression, but I didn't know that other benzo's such as Xanax and Ativan did not cause depression. So should I ask my Psychiatrist to maybe switch.
Klonopin does seem to cause depression in some people at some point, but that seems to be a minority. Besides, if you're taking an antidepressant, that lowers the risk of such an effect. Ironically, some studies have actually suggested anti-depressant effects for Klonopin (although there are more such reports for Xanax). After five years of daily Klonopin, I have not suffered clinical depression. BTW, I took Xanax before Klonopin and for me the difference was night and day. Xanax basically just zonked me out, and made me feel vaguely uncomfortable and somewhat less anxious. OTOH, Klonopin eradicated most of my anxiety, and I don't feel it physically at all at my current dose. I was so glad I switched. When I was at the higher doses it did cause some sedation.
>Is 4mg daily of Klonopin considered a high daily dose.
Yes, for anxiety treatment that's pretty high, especially when you are also taking the other psychotropics. While that could prove to be the level you need, have you tried cutting back some? After about six months on Klonopin I learned that taking LESS actually worked better for me than a higher dose. I.e., there's a U-shaped theraputic response curve. As I said in the reply I posted to your first thread a few hours ago, I started at 2.5-3 mg, but then tapered down to 1 mg/day, where I've been for four years to sustained excellent effect.
Incidentally, a few studies suggest that people who take benzos for GAD have less risk of withdrawal difficulties than those who use it for other anxiety disorders (especially panic). This was mentioned in the recent Journal of Clinical Psychiatry supplement I cited in my other post.Rick
poster:Rick
thread:337501
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040417/msgs/338302.html