Posted by viridis on November 3, 2002, at 0:39:09
In reply to Re: thanks Re: Klonopin as a dumb drug »All » viridis, posted by Franz on November 2, 2002, at 17:55:56
Hi Franz,
It sounds like you have a good plan. I would definitely try Klonopin, and it probably can be used on an as-needed basis. My main concern would be that it can cause side effects (I experienced sleepiness, clumsiness, and short-term memory loss for the first couple of weeks that I took it, but then these completely went away -- all were mild anyway). So, if you only take it sporadically, you might get the side effects. The tradeoff is that regular use has a high likelihood of causing dependency (like many other medications, including antidepressants). You'll just have to try it and see how it affects you.
I do take Xanax (alprazolam) as-needed, maybe once every week or two. It's great for "breakthrough" anxiety, and as long as I keep the dose at 0.5 mg or lower, it works very well. Above this dose, I feel very sleepy. I'm definitely not dependent on Xanax, although I probably am dependent on Klonopin. But whenever I take Xanax, I can feel it, whereas daily Klonopin is undetectable, except that the anxiety is under control and I can think clearly.
I believe that Klonopin was originally marketed as an anti-epileptic drug (and the doses that epileptics took were huge compared to those for the anxiety/panic population). My understanding is that its anti-epileptic properties fade over time, whereas its anti-anxiety properties persist, so it shifted over to being an anxiolytic as doctors recognized its usefulness for anxiety patients and moved on to other drugs for epileptics.
I can't comment much about glycine, except to say that many substances can't cross the blood-brain barrier (i.e., just swallowing them doesn't automatically allow them into to your brain, which has a very controlled-access policy for many chemicals). Maybe glycine falls into this category, or maybe it's modified to some other chemical before it gets there.
Re: generics: among generic versions of Klonopin I've noticed a difference (Teva seems most effective). I've never noticed this with any other generic drugs, and Squiggles found the same thing. With alprazolam, I've only taken the Teva generic, and it works fine. A while back (months ago) there was a thread in which many people complained about the lower potency of certain generic brands of alprazolam, so there may be something in the manufacturing process that makes a difference.
Good luck with Klonopin -- just give it a while before you make a final judgement. It's very subtle, but effective for many.
All the best,
Viridis
poster:viridis
thread:124171
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021101/msgs/126241.html