Posted by yxibow on January 17, 2005, at 23:53:10
In reply to HELP Onset of klonopin?, posted by banga on January 17, 2005, at 23:13:32
> I just tried some of the klonopin I was given--my anxiety was starting to get very bad. .5 mg twice a day. No effect at all!
> Does it take some time to work--some days? Or is this a very low dose? What does it mean if it doesn't work for me??
> I will call my pdoc but hoped for some guidance here!
The short answer is benzodiazepines like Klonopin are immediate in the sense of hours, and that is a very low dose.....Klonopin (clonazepam) produces a more subtle response to anxiety, in my experience any feeling of "effect" may be measured in hours. But that also means that it is a benzodiazepine that has a longer half life and can reach a more steady dosage.
It's also conceivable that if you had been on other benzodiazepines in the recent past such as Ativan or Valium or the like, your cross-tolerance may be such that .5mg (the smallest made dose of clonazepam) is not "enough" of an effect for what it is treating.
Similarly, you could also be a fast metabolizer of such medications, or it could be interacting with whatever else you take and decreasing its availability.
You may want to talk with your doctor about raising the dose slightly on your Klonopin
(carefully... there are people who are walking around with 4 or 8mg in their system but one has to think about other effects such as reaction time in driving and the like and there's no point building up a large dose if a smaller one can work because it will take longer to come down off of it properly. I know this from present experience but my situation required a larger dose.)And if Klonopin isnt for you, there's about a dozen other benzodiazepines such as Serax though generally the psych world favours Klonopin for a variety of reasons.
Hope that provides some information
poster:yxibow
thread:443552
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050113/msgs/443573.html