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sjones
Klonopin Withdrawl
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I was wondering if anyone can tell me what their experiences have been with Klonopin withdrawl. My husband was prescribed this last August for his JME but has since built a tolerance to it. He has been able to cut his dosage in half since February (he is now down to a daily dose of 1.25 TID), but is still experiencing withdrawl symptoms. His symptoms usually occur when he is trying to problem solve. He says he feels like he has a tiny little myoclonic seizure, undectable to anyone but himself. Naturally, this is causing some anxiety.
Has anyone taken a really slow withdrawl schedule and if so how long did you wait before tapering down to a lower dose? Did this help lessen the problems of coming of this medication? Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Sarah
Recent Comments on this Discussion
Hi Gretchen,
Thanks for your reply. We were really hoping that the Klonopin would help him out and it did...for a couple of weeks. After that he would have the same types of problems. He actually did not have the severity of problems he has been having until he started on the Klonopin. But, he's really sensitive to meds. He can't take Depakote or Dilantin due to allergic reactions to those meds. He was on Tegretol, but we found out when he was finally diagnosed with JME that the Tegretol could make his seizures worse. The docs started him on the Klonopin and weaned him off of the Tegretol a few months ago. He has also taken Lamictal for several years. The Lamictal has been pretty good for him. They added Zonegran when they decided that the Klonopin wasn't going to work for him. The told him to go off cold and that didn't work out to well...he had a TC about two hours after he stopped his med. He defintely has the anxiety related to the withdrawl. He's just nervous about having a seizure all the time. I know things will get better, it's just going to take a long time. I'm just hoping to get some good info to pass along to him and hopefully reassure him during this time.
Thanks!
Sarah
About three months ago my psychiatrist put me on Klonopin for anxiety. It worked great for about ten days until the side effects kicked in. I was having a seizure/ panic attack that would last for hours every day. After adding and subtracting some meds, I did not know if what I was experiencing was a start-up effect, withdrawal, or interaction.
Now that I am on Klonopin only (along with Dilantin, Tegretol, and Topomax for seizure control) I am still having side effects. I had a few good days at the start, but then it was back to the daily seizure/ anxiety attack. I have been trying to isolate what changed. At first I thought it was that I was smoking more and that was messing with the level of Klonopin. I do know that since I had the first seizure episode I have been housebound and doing things like playing solitaire on the computer to pass the time. In fact that is when the seizure feeling usually starts. It's kind of embarrassing that playing cards might be over-heating my brain to the point of a seizure. Maybe I should just try a day watching TV.
Thanks for pointing out the "problem solving" trigger.
Sam
I most often post other places, though like to check in here off and on. My experience with Klonopin was that I was having the withdrawl symptoms on the way up and no matter what after 6 months it loses some of it's efficacy. You should raise your level slowly though which is an ardurous process and then you should find a good peak level that controls the problems. From there it should then after time be lowered gradually over a period of time giving you the chance to see what effects the reduction is causing. This is both sides.
Also any excitement or activity is a great trigger for people weather it be the computer or the television o the radio. It stimulates our minds. Unfortunantly for us, when our minds are stimulated they don't seem to always get the right message and it causes the energy to travel a different path than what was intended. Somehow this always turns into some type of amplifier... odd really... I usually see it as a good thing when my brain doesn't take on this amplification process.
Diagnosed with Myoclonic Epilepsy...
Andrew Strasser