Benzos to treat agitation?

[moonpanda]

Hey y'all,
The past two days, I've had some pretty bad problems with extreme agitation. Yesterday it was accompanied by depression, and today accompanied by hypomania. But each time, I wanted to be able to crawl out of my skin. Nothing felt comfortable, nothing felt right. The usual things I could turn to in an attempt to distract myself from my negative feelings, even for a moment, stopped being at all effective. My attention span is shot, and nothing could calm me down in the slightest. But this evening, I decided to take my nightly Xanax dose a bit earlier, and it has done a remarkable job of COMPLETELY calming this skin-crawling agitation. I am feeling content and relieved, and I'm no longer panicking and wanting to rip my hair out. It could be a med change side effect, or a part of my episodes, I'm not too sure.

So my question is: are benzodiazepines typically used to treat agitation? I was thinking of asking my psychiatrist for a short term (a week or two) prescription for a longer lasting benzo to get me though the week when I feel like this. I truly am non-functional with this type of agitation, and for someone who is currently having some serious problems with suicidal preoccupation, it's quite worrisome. Any thoughts of suggestions as to which meds could be helpful in this situation? Thanks!

[moonpanda]

Just an update: I've been advised to stop taking the Geodon, and to use the Xanax I'm already prescribed and acclimated to as needed in the short term to treat residual anxiety and agitation. Seroquel was added by a different doctor to help with sleep and agitation as an alternative to Xanax, but I think I'm going to stick with what I know right now. Thanks for the input!

[moonpanda]

This agitation has really started after I began taking Geodon, so it could be related to AP use with me as well. It does feel a lot like akathisia, which I also experienced in the first week or two after starting Prozac.

I'm quite wary of taking my PRN meds to treat this side effect, especially since I don't want to use up my prescription before next month and suffer the agony that I've heard it is to withdraw from benzos. It was kind of a last resort thing... I really couldn't take it anymore. My pdoc isn't a big fan of benzos, but I'm meeting with her tomorrow, and I'll let her know what's going on. Hopefully there is something we can figure out! Thanks for the replies!

[bpchrisb]

I had the same kind of issues with the various anti-psychotics that my shrink had me on. They would all drive me up a wall; akathesia was the culprit. My pdoc thought that they were agitated manic episodes, but I knew they weren't as I have had those episodes before.

The trial and error with Zyprexa, Seroquel and Risperdone (sp?) was miserable; I'd give each of them a shot, they'd put me down and I'd wake up with my skin crawling. I am currently on a small dose of Klonopin and that helped, but I always ended up popping an Ativan to calm myself down. There were times when that didn't do the trick. One night, I was so agitated that I took every PRN medication (Ativan, Xanax XR, Neurontin) and I still
couldn't chill out. It wasn't fun.

In all honesty, I would be careful about medicating the SEs of another med; it's can be a very slippery slope. I mean, if you're taking something as needed every once in awhile, that's not a problem. However, in my case, I had to stop taking the anti-psychotics because I was going to end up taking big doses of the benzos to combat the insomnia and agitation.

[ILADVOCATE]

Benzos have a minor mood stabilization effect but they mainly treat anxiety. If Xanax becomes less effective over time and there are times where it is suddenly needed its essential to bring this to the attention of your psychiatrist as its a benzo that has a short half life so it has more of a potential for a person to build up a tolerance to it than some other medications. If you need an anti-anxiety medication long term some benzos with a longer half life such as Klonopin (which I've taken for 10 years without a problem) might be worth inquiring about but the potential for a person building up a tolerance to it is still there so if this is not anxiety related then you should inform your psychiatrist as they might try to adjust the primary mood stabilizer you are on but that's their decision.

[moonpanda]

*Oops, a clarification: I think the agitation is what could be caused by either my recent med changes or my recent episodes, not this miraculous effect of Xanax.