klonopin

[brenm]

Does klonopin need to be taking daily to get in your system for it to work for anxiety or can you just take as needed?

[nora006]

Brenm and Paxiled

Clonazepam has to be taken on a regular basis to work efficently for panic anxiety or for autonomic dysfunctional states such as loss of homeostatic negative feed-back, which is the reason I'm taking it for).
If one only experience occational panic Klonopin can be taken "as needed" though I must say that a dosage of for instance 0.5 mg will  commonly make you drowsy as long as you're not taking it on a regular basis. Therefore it is not the best drug to take on an "as needed" basis in my opinion. There are other and better options in this resepect. But then again, as I've explained somewhere else I, for instance, can' t tolerate oxazepam very well(it makes me a zombie) and that drug is, more than Klonopin, meant for intermittently usage(it's not that a potent benzo as is clonazepam). Clonazepam is classified as an anti-convulsant and I've come to learn, from a very knowledgeable person on this forum, that clonazepam works on several systems within the CNS(central nervous system) and therefore is more potent than f.ex Valium(which did not make me drowsy at all). Only "logical" when you think of it, as it's an anti-convulsant:)

It depends on what condition you have and the medication should always be tailored as accurate and conscientiously as possible, but this, unfortunately, is not always the case as GPs(or even psychiatrists) in my experience, very seldom have the acquired knowledge to do this.


Best regards
Nora

[Paxiled]

Hensley, Nora is right -- klonopin is long lasting, not fast acting.  Psychiatrist are known to prescribe it both all the time and as needed.  Many will tell you it has to be taken on a regular basis to work, so somebody's confused, probably me.  

[nora006]

The different Benzodiazepines are classified as:
1) ultra-short-acting
2) short-acting agents, with half-lives shorter than 6 hours
3) intermediate-acting agents, with half -lives of 6-24 hours
4) Long-acting agents, with half-lives of greater than 24 hours
(Goodman & Gilman's :The pharmacological basis of therapeutics, 11th ed,2005)

Klonopin(Clonazepam) has a half-life of 23+/- 5 hours.

You wrote:
"Does klonopin need to be taking daily to get in your system for it to work for anxiety or can you just take as needed? "

Klonopin has to be taken daily to accumulate to work for anxiety if we're speaking of debilitating panick anxiety.  "Free-floating" chronic anxiety states such as GAD is best treated with weaker, long-acting benzos.
Klonopin should be dosed, ideally, twice a day to reach a "steady state" plasma level within 2 weeks, (some dose it t.i.d/every 8 hour).
It can also be taken "as needed", but then you should be aware of the possibility of withdrawal symptoms/interdose problem. If the drug is allowed to be cleared completely after every single dosage there shouldn't be a problem.
I might also point out that development of tolerance to Klonopin's anxiolytic properties is not that common as the development of tolerance to it's anticonvulsant properties, though people respond differently to medication.

Hope this was of some use to you.
If you search the board for Klonopin(clonazepam) you will find a lot of information here.


Nora

[Hensley258]

Klonopin is very fast acting. Down side is that it is also very short acting.
Unlike antidepressants, the effect of Klonopin is felt almost immidiatly.
Don't expect it to help your depression. It will only ease the anxiety and only for a short time.