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Diazepam to take off the edge?
Sun, 11/19/2006 - 15:33Topic: Medication Issues
Has anybody else who gets a long warning period before seizures ever been prescribed Diazepam (Valium)? the G.P. that I was seeing at the time suggested if I woke up in a morning and knew I was going to have a seizure that I take Valium in order to ''take the edge off'' the onset of panic as the day progressed. I know quite a lot of people take meds from the same family of Benzodiazepines as Valium e.g. Ativan as part of their Epilepsy meds and I wondered if they had noticed any psychological or physical side effects from use of meds from this family of meds such as quick build up of tolerance or trouble in stopping taking them. I now take Clobazam which is from the same family but comes without a lot of the side effects such as tolerance build up. I took the script off the doctor but to be honest found Valium of little or no use especially in the way he suggested. Maybe the Clobazam has helped take the edge off the some of the common side effects of Keppra such as rage and mood swings.
I'd be interested to hear of other peoples experiences if they take meds from this family of drugs.
I have taken lots of
Submitted by wldhrt13 on Sun, 2006-11-19 - 21:55
I have taken lots of different benzodiazepines. But the one I took consistently for many years was Valium (Diazepam). However, I didn't take it on a P.R.N. basis, I took it every morning as prescribed. The only adverse effect I noted from it's usage was with my vision. It causes the muscles around the eyes to relax a bit, which causes some mild blurry vision. I needed to get some reading glasses for close-up work. My distance vision was unaffected. After discontinuing the medicine, my 20/15 vision returned and I donated the reading glasses to charity. Valium is a good medication because it has a longer half-life than most others. Therefore it enters your system more slowly and stays in your system for a longer amount of time. It was a Godsend for me and worked magic to make me feel normal again... On the other hand, it was pure hell tapering off it (withdrawal).