Posted by med_empowered on December 23, 2005, at 4:27:21
In reply to best benzo 4 sleep; best benzo 2 protect cognition, posted by iforgotmypassword on December 22, 2005, at 13:46:40
hi! The "best" benzo for sleep or any other application really varies from person to person. Restoril was OK for me. I think its a little better than Ambien (none of that early morning confusion) and longer lasting (and cheaper) than sonata. Sometimes I've found combos are good. So..if you're on a drug for anxiety, a careful doc will usually slightlly boost the dosage of that to help you sleep. Doing that, plus maybe some Vistaril/Atarax, Trazadone, Benadryl, Neurontin/Lyrica, or low-dose Ambien could be helpful...it also keeps your med regimine simple. If you're on Klonopin anyway, you could just try a little extra at night, plus maybe one of the aforementioned "boosters"...since Klonopin has a long half-life, you'd get mood stabilizing and anti-anxiety effects, plus you'd avoid the withdrawal that makes other sleeping pills (ex: Halcion) problematic.
As for anxiety...I think Ativan is probably the cleanest. If all you need is something to kill of anxiety, Ativan's probably the way to go. It also doesn't last too long (or too briefly), so it can be dosed as needed without too much inter-dosing withdrawal (like you'd get from xanax). I'd avoid Tranxene..it can cause mad depression.
There is xanax xr to consider but...I dont see the point, really, unless your doc is hell bent on it. Ativan is useful for anxiety, and it even helps in acute mania and psychosis, so its kind of like a cleaner, shorter-acting Klonopin sans the depressive side effects (its like mixing the best of xanax and the best of klonopin)
Good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:591281
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051221/msgs/591520.html