Posted by yxibow on September 22, 2005, at 15:14:33
In reply to Anyone take Tranxene?, posted by grammy on September 21, 2005, at 22:40:21
> My pdoc just switched me from Xanax XR to Tranxene because the Xanax XR co-payment is too expensive for me. I haven't started the Tranxene yet. Is it a clean drug? Carole
Most benzodiazepines are fairly "clean" agents and far safer than their predecessors, but they may target slightly different levels of the BZ subreceptor sites (anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, hypnotic).
My experience, while theoretically in vitro (lab) the metabolite half life may be long acting, the drug itself in vivo (person), is most definately not. Some years ago, I was started on Tranxene by an off campus doctor I was seeing and I was taking some combination of 7.5s 3x a day, and basically every dose was a new "hit" in a sense. It just didn't last that long in me. Eventually my medication management was moved to my university to keep all my psychiatric care in one place, but that's neither here nor there.
Unfortunately, and I don't say that this could happen, but I felt it was becoming impairing, and I initiated a self-taper off of it that was too fast. Something snapped in my head and for several weeks afterwards the muscles in my scalp moved around spasmodically. Something should have been done immediately but it was brushed aside... I did taper back up a bit but I had a benzo hating doctor (I really hated her.. she was the only psychiatrist in charge at my university student clinic and fairly unpleasant to visit) who took my initiative and started going down on the medication. 8, maybe 9 years down the line, I still have a slightly "frozen" head muscle area (it also releases occasionally and spasms under high anxiety) and if I stretch my neck or back a little my toes wriggle semi-controllable.
Now after all this diatribe (sorry, but I just had to get into it), I would say, if you wish to to take the medication, do so, but remember that the uptaper and downtaper should be fairly slow especially if you notice that you actually sense a need for multiple doses in a day. If your metabolism is completely different than mine, than its just another benzodiazepine.
Ultimately, take your personal feelings and your doctors advice in mind. If you don't feel comfortable with the new drug, I dont see why your doctor shouldnt just put you back on Xanax regular (which like most generic benzodiazepines is probably cheap as dirt), albeit the greater number of times a day you might have to take it. It many not be particularly different in terms of numbers a day as Tranxene (clorazepate dipotassium).
Hope that gives some perspective and not scare you off too much.
Tidings
poster:yxibow
thread:557965
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050921/msgs/558174.html