Posted by Novelagent on May 24, 2012, at 7:53:09
In reply to Re: Did you know this about klonopin?, posted by Christ_empowered on May 23, 2012, at 10:52:08
CE, be careful-- I was of the mind adding klonopin reduces the need for an antipsychotic, but this has never been studied. I can see this helping someone if they are on a decent dose of an antipsychotic and adding klonopin to avoid going up on the antipsychotic, but I'm increasingly skeptical about using this hunch to lower an antipsychotic. It's just not worth the risk.
Take your 30mg, for instance. What benefit would you notice going from 30mg to 15mg? None. You wouldn't feel it. Yet it could risk a relapse, which could risk needing to up the dose if the relapse worsens your condition. The klonopin might help relieve anxiety in general, and that may be helpful for your overall health, but I wouldn't do it just to try lowering a dose of Abilify when your dose is so modest.
The 30mg you're on is a moderate dose, and it simply doesn't justify much with going down in dose. If you were on 60mg, it might be different, but risking relapse for such a marginal. Near-zero benefit? I'm not so sure. If I were you, I'd give a good 2 years of zero symptoms before messing with those dose. Just my two cents...
As far as Klonopin goes, it is used along with the antihistamine Vistaril or Atarax for the same reason: it slows things down, which is important in bipolar. It is not, however, Lithium-- it's far from being a mood stabalizer. It's more of a normalizer-- it makes you more normal in general, that's all. It's not exactly a replacement for Lithium, to put it that way. It's an adjunct for mood disorders.
> Its good for mania in conjunction with an atypical antipsychotic. Mild mood stabilizer, good anti-anxiety+anti-agitation action, plus it helps reduce the dose of the antipsychotic necessary to get things under control.
poster:Novelagent
thread:1018501
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120522/msgs/1018600.html