Posted by jerimycoplo on April 1, 2004, at 20:45:57
Hey I suffer from terrible anxiety which cripples my life. I have found that benzos such as klonopin which i am currenlty taken are the things that help by far the most from everyhting i've tried. My pdoc however warned that long term use might (among others) cause liver dysfunction. When i further questioned him he said that it could be as bad as cihrosis and as little as elevated enzymes...Howver , you don't hear much about hepatotoxicity of benzos...
I was wondergin if anyone knew some stats or studies about this. I'm thinnking, they can't be worse then alcochol. Studies show that only about 30% of alcohollics (8-10 drinks every day) over a period of 20-30 yrs of drinking actuaslly develop serious liver problems. And of these only a minority are cirhosis. So I 'm thinking to myself that 1 mg of klonopin a day is probably alot more safe then 8 beers a day and probbaly even 4 beers. Overall I'm trying to get an idea of how dangerous klonopin really is to my liver at 1 mg per day.
Does anyone here know any web resources, studies, etc. that talks about the percentage of people that get liver issues from long term benzo use? Is it more dangerous then alcohol? Do some people maybe get elevated enzymes and a super small minority serious comlications and then other people (maybe the majority) have perfectly healthy livers while taking klonopin long term?
Let me know, especialy if you or someone you know has taken a benzo over long term.
I do know about the other side effects and withdrawl etc....my main concern is liver problems however.
Btw. my p doc also mentioned that more toxicity could arise depending with what other drugs it is combined....i currently take paxil and sometimes luvox....regards jc
poster:jerimycoplo
thread:331566
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040329/msgs/331566.html