Posted by mattw84 on December 5, 2004, at 15:51:08
In reply to My Xanax XR seems weak..dosage help PLEASE??, posted by bjg on December 5, 2004, at 11:33:59
Supposedly Xanax XR keeps a constant plasma level for 24 hours. I have not found this to be the case, I am currently taking 3mg XR twice daily. I too started with .5 mg of the IR version as needed and found it very effective. My complaints of rebound anxiety prompted a switch to klonopin which was effective, but notably sedating and also started to notice myself feeling moreso depressed. So we switched back to Xanax XR at .5mg XR once daily. I quickly started having what were identified by my pdoc as benzodiazepine withdrawals, and after that she decided to read the PI sheet... Tell your doc you are looking for the equivilent coverage to taking the .5 mg IR every 4 hours to get complete coverage.
Xanax IR to Xanax XR math is fairly simple:
0.5 mg 4x daily = Total 2mg
So Xanax XR 2mg once daily or Xanax XR 1 mg 2x daily. (I recommend the latter)I would recommend trying klonopin if you have not already, unless depressed. It is highly effective and the teva generic is very cheap! Always a bonus...
My $.02 is that if you can avoid benzos... do... but especially Xanax, it's great as needed; however taken as complete treatment it quickly becomes less effective. (causing dose to quickly escalate) Alprazolam also has a very short half life, so when the XR pill is done dissolving, your plasma levels drop just as fast as with the IR version and cause serious rebound anxiety!
Good luck
Matt
poster:mattw84
thread:399779
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041201/msgs/424858.html