Posted by PaulB on June 24, 2001, at 12:28:32
In reply to How much clonazepam is needed for SP?, posted by Else on June 24, 2001, at 11:27:09
> I have recently gone of the Zoloft I was taking to
> control my social phobia because I didn't like the
> side effects. Now I take two daily doses of Rivotril
> (Klonopin) 0.5mg. This barely affects my baseline anxiety
> and I haven't had the nerve to test it in a stressful
> social context yet. I have been told this dose is too
> small. Any opinions? I have been on it for two weeks only.PaulB >
Clonazepam is my favourate benzodiazepine for anxiety because it works very well and it has a good half-life. Rather than taking it twice a day it can be an ideal benzodiazepine for 1x daily dosing. It may not build up in your system 1x daily like Valium and yet does not require the 2x daily dose of Xanax. Taken at 9.00 in the morning the effect will last till 9.00 in the evening.
Theres two good links at the dr-bob.org homepage which I am not sure you have looked at yet, one on panic disorder an done on social anxiety disorder and both cite Clonazepam as an effective treatment for both:
The treatment is initiated with 2mg/day of Clonazepam divided in two doses 1mg lunch and 1mg bed time. If the patient gets too sleepy he can stay for one week or even more with 1mg bed time only......one, two, three weeks into this schedule the patient starts to say he is a new person'
This indicates that at 2mg a day, twice what your are taking the response can take a short while but once a therapeutic amount of the drug has built up in the blood stream you may then at some point have to cut back.
This is the kind of question which Im sure your under the guidance of your physician for and if you didnt see a response at your current dose it would be his/her decision as to adjust the dosing but if you didnt continue to see a response at this dose then at least you could perhaps use this approach as a guideline, knowing that if you got too sleepy you could come off the Clonazepam for a week with no withdrawal/rebound anxiety.
poster:PaulB
thread:67661
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010618/msgs/67671.html