what is the purpose of klonopin

[grandpao]

what is the purpose of klonmopin

[VicZag]

Klonopin (clonazepam) is in a class of drugs called benzodiazepines. Klonopin affects chemicals in your brain that may become unbalanced and cause seizures or symptoms of panic disorder.  Klonopin is used to treat seizures and panic disorder.

[kteen16]

and it works very well.
but is better used as a crutch,
its a very dependent drug and can be addicting.

[Ryan7591]

"but is better used as a crutch"

^quote

I believe you meant to write "better used as a tool". Trust me, you don't want to use Klonopin as a crutch!

Many years ago Klonopin (originally marketed under the name Clonopin) was intended to serve as an anticonvulsant for petit-mal and several other variants of epilepsy. It quickly fell out of favor for this use, as there is a 30% risk of loss of the anticonvulsant effect at the recommended maintenance dosage of 1.5 milligrams.

Like many agents today, Klonopin was used off-label by psychiatrists, beginning in the early 1980's (the drug was originally marketed in 1976). Klonopin, unlike the other popular Benzodiazepines of the era (Ativan, Serax, Tranxene and Valium) was found to be panic-specific. The others (with the exception of Ativan) lacked the anti-panic effect. Up until the early 1980's, "panic anxiety" (referred to today as panic disorder) was treated with a Tricyclic antidepressant, named Tofranil, with mixed results. Tofranil has a stimulating quality, and was good where anxiety and depression coexisted. It was not effective for straight panic without coexisting depression. Contrary to popular belief, depression is rarely a component in the case of panic disorder.

The only other two Benzodiazepines that are effective for panic are Ativan and Xanax, both of which carry an exceptionally short half-life (12 hours and 11 hours respectively). Thus, their use in the long-term maintenance of panic disorder is limited to a maximum of four months, after which point they typically begin to lose their effectiveness. Their short half-lives precludes their use over the long-term. Klonopin, on the other hand, carries a mean half-life of 36 hours (range 18-50 hours). The long elimination half-life of Klonopin allows the drug to accumulate in the plasma. Provided it is dosed twice daily, the drug accumulates to steady-state within a period of two weeks. In an additional two weeks, the drug accumulates to 1.5 times that of the steady-state plasma level. This accumulation offers a few benefits: (1) It prevents "interdose" or "rebound" symptoms, (2) It provides 24-hr coverage against the physical symptoms of panic disorder, and (3) Tolerance to the anti-panic effect will not occur. Klonopin (unlike Ativan or Xanax) may be used indefinitely without any appreciable loss of efficacy. Therefore, Klonopin is the agent of choice for the long-term treatment of panic disorder...but only when other potential treatments have failed.

To learn more about the Benzodiazepines, please refer to my journal entry titled "The Benzodiazepines".

~Ryan

[russtoo]

Hi Ryan;

   Do you then feel Klonopin is less useful for GAD than, say, Valium?
   I have GAD and have been taking Valium 10 mg. tid for 15 years. A month ago Dr. switched me to Klonopin .5 mg. tid. It's been a hard month with the loss of Valium's active metabolites which Dr. thought were building up in my system.
   I hope your day is pretty good.

   Russ