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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Justitia on November 17, 1999, at 10:33:05
I don't know if I have drug's name right but in my efforts for several years to get off klonopin, my meds doctor suggested this as a substitute because it is non-addictive. I just went through a three and 1/2 month period of hell. First I was foced by my prescription plan to go on the generic of klonopin, clonazepam. The transition was anight mare. People thought I was sick with a terrible illness. I suffered nightmares that were just orrible for nearly a month. After a while they settled down but instead what emerged was incredible tiredness. I was sleeping a lot and had no energy to do anything. Finally I switched back to klonopin out of my own pocket. (A petition to the prescription plan by my doctor detailing all the negative consequences of my experiences on clonazepam was to no avail. I work for the state and they basically said that they didn't care what might suffering was that they went by the FDA.) When I started back on the klonopin the tiredness almost immediately disappeared and a bunch of other symptoms. I decided to start withdrawing from it. I cut back from 1 mg to 3/4 mg. Within two weeks I was a basket case. Explosive, I felt my feelings were completely hollowed out, all I could feel was impatience. I am a university professor at a school that relies very heavily on student evaluations and the school draws extremely weak students who are generally very hostile to any academic performance. This is an advanced professional school. Keeping the students from not being angry while coaxing them to work is no mean feat here. Most professors just basically give up and let the student do what they want, not come to class show up unprepared leave class in the middle for long stretches and so forth. The administration here punishes the professor if the students complain. So one cannot rock the boat. But I didn't get into teaching forthe students not to lear. SO I am always traveling this knife edge of pushing them and staying within their good graces. Well in the last two weeks while I was withdrawing from the klonopin, I blew it. Just a little expression of impatience at someone's unpreparedness and so forth and now hey are confronted with the reality of the upcomming final exams and the class is completely hostile to me. And guess what I have to do? Give out student evaluations. I am going to get creamed. a whole semester of fairly good will down the tubes. I will never go through that hell of withdrawing from klonopin again. I am back up to my normal dosage as of yesterday and I already feel back to normal.
Does anyone know anything about the side effects of Neurotin?
Posted by Rick on November 21, 1999, at 3:34:45
In reply to Neurontin as a replacement for Klonopin?, posted by Justitia on November 17, 1999, at 10:33:05
Sorry to hear of your difficulties. You didn't say what kind of disorder you have been diagnosed with. I've heard that, at sufficient doses, the anti-epileptic Neurontin (gabapentin) can be very helpful for bipolar disorder and possibly also for CERTAIN KINDS of anxiety disorders. Given its cost and lack of generic availability, it seems ironic that your plan would cover Neurontin but not Klonopin.
I understand Neurontin usually takes AT LEAST a few weeks to begin working. The most common side effects I've read about are sedation and sometimes mild cognitive impairment, although I've heard that in most cases these go away after a few days to a few weeks. Neurontin is considered a very safe drug that does not cause dependence or addiction.
Your comments about clonazepam are interesting. Many people find the generic to be equally effective, while others swear it is inferior to Klonopin (I've only used the latter). But those who claim clonazepam is weaker usually report that they simply have to take a larger dose to obtain relief equivalent to the branded product. While low-dose Klonopin is less likely to cause withdrawal problems than shorter-acting benzos, "less likely" isn't much comfort to someone like yourself who went through hell getting off the med. I wonder if some of your difficulty might have actually been due to severe rebound of the symptoms of your underlying disorder as you came off the Klonopin?
Posted by Justitia on November 21, 1999, at 9:24:11
In reply to Re: Neurontin as a replacement for Klonopin?, posted by Rick on November 21, 1999, at 3:34:45
My disorder is panic and anxiety. Yes my meds dr and I both wondered if it was a rebound of my underlying issues. Certainly my explosiveness was. But I do not recall the hollow feeling of no feelings inside that I felt just comming down from 1mg to .75. But then that might be that 12 years aog I was so disconnected from my feelings I didn't know they were "missing." (Smiles...see therapy does work.) The clonazepam had other side effects for me that got progressively worse. It feels great right now to be back to "normal" now that I am back on 1 mg of klonopin and back on the name brand of my estrogen rather than the generic, all of which I have to pay for out of my pocket. Yes my prescription plan is nuts. They will pay for name brands of drugs if there is no generic but if there is a generic they force you to take that. Which means you have to change your medication at least once every 17 years, which is when patents expire. That can be good on the one hand if progress has been made in the area. But I think it is tough on those drigs for psychological problems where a match is dificult to make anyway. The difference between the name brand and the generics is the delivry system. All that the company who has the patent has to do is let go of control of the "active ingredient." Not how it is packaged. ANd I assure you those drug companies when they are releasing a new drug, tweak and refine the delivery system so it is maximally effective with minimum side effects. The generics don't do that, do not go to the expense of doing so and their delivery system is more random than anything. Some people are not sensitive to the delivery package, others are. For my estrogen, my doctor who is in fact the workd's leading researcher on hormone replacement therapy at Johns Hopkins (this is not an idle brag) says that every instance of hormone replacement therapy failure that they have in their research (and he heads up most of the major research projects on that in the world) that the failures have been due to the patient being on the genric and the failure disappears as soon as the patient is place back on the name brand. And yet the FDA declares them medically equivalent. I wonder who is the lobbying force behind that? Perhaps the insurance companies? In some case the woman's actual health and well-being is at risk (osteoporosis, etc.) as it was in my case. I wish the news media would give this issue the same attention that they gave the Lewinsky-Clinton scandal. Many more millions of people are affected by this than people realize.
Posted by wildcat685 on April 19, 2006, at 1:39:20
In reply to Re: Neurontin as a replacement for Klonopin?, posted by Rick on November 21, 1999, at 3:34:45
I have been on this medicine Klonopin for almost ayear. ive been taking .5 mg. which helped alot at first but it seems its not working any more...when I asked my doctor to increase the dose he had a cow! said I was on a strong enough dosage, but I have to ask, if its "strong enough" why isnt it helping with my mood swings, depression, and anxiety? What should I do? Im raising 4 kids alone, and taking care of my parents...I need something that works!
This is the end of the thread.
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