Posted by freedom2001 on February 17, 2003, at 20:57:15
In reply to anyone use a benzo for OCD?, posted by babs on February 16, 2003, at 19:11:18
> My OCD doesn't respond to celexa (which works fine for my depression) and I am currently on risperdal to augment it but looking to get off (the risperdal) due to side-effects. Would like to hear people's experiences using klonopin and the like for OCD. Thanks, babs
As of 1994 there are reports of six adults for whom clonazepam successfully treated their OCD. In five of these cases clonazepam was used alone. In the sixth it was used as an augmentation agent. In 1987 Cohen and Rosenbaum reported a patient with OCD, and no other anxiety disorder, who responded partially to imipramine. This patient improved significantly with clonazepam augmentation. This response discontinued after the clonazepam was stopped, and returned once the augmentation had begun again. A second patient, with both OCD and panic disorder, experienced a total remission of symptoms while on clonazepam, according to Bodkin and White in 1989. In 1990 Bacher reported the successful use of clonazepam in a 60-year old man for whom other benzodiazepines had been ineffective. Hewlett studied 3 OCD patients who responded to clonazepam in 1990. When two of these patients discontinued the drug treatment they experienced significant relapse of the OCD symptoms.In 1993 Ross and Piggott reported using clonazepam in the successful treatment of a 14-year old male OCD patient. The boy had previously failed trials of clomipramine, thioridazine, diazepam, and fluoxetine. "To our knowledge, this current case study represents the youngest individual to receive clonazepam augmentation of serotonin reuptake blocking medications. It is also the first report of the long-term outcome of a patient receiving such augmentation. In addition, the patient in this study had complete remission of his obsessive-compulsive symptoms after an overdose of fluoxetine, which raises interesting questions about therapeutic mechanisms.(Allen, p.793.)" He was symptom free for 1 month after the overdose but slowly his OCD symptoms began to return to their previous severity. This patient was then started on fluoxetine therapy, then on fluvoxamine, and finally concurrently with fluoxetine and buspirone. None of these medication regiments were successful in effectively alleviating his OCD symptoms. At the age of 20 the patient's buspirone was discontinued, and clonazepam was instituted as the augmenting agent. Within 1 month he noticed a 75% reduction in the severity of his symptoms. The results of this case indicate that clonazepam may be considered as an augmentation agent to the serotonin reuptake inhibitor medications for treating OCD.
http://lynx.dac.neu.edu/e/ekrenzel/OCDtreatments.htm
poster:freedom2001
thread:201004
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030214/msgs/201291.html