Please advise

[difficulttimes]

My dad has been told to come off clonazepam cold turkey. He has been off it 2 weeks. He appears fine in the day. At night he has very vivid dreams that he believes are reall. He becomes very confused and angry. Is this normal? Can anything be done to help him out with this?

[difficulttimes]

This is all very helpful. The doctor did say stop because of the addictive nature of clonazepam. Whilst he is fine during the day it is the night that he needs to be monitored. The doctor did not advise that he should stop taking it in a hospital situation. In fact the psychiarist and the GP have a seriouse lack of communciation with each other - the psychiatrist advises and the GP prescribes but really neither seem to care what is actually happening!!.

I will go back to the GP and psychiatrist about this. I am grateful for your comments.

[ILADVOCATE]

When a person takes a benzodiazepene such as Klonopin (which I take for control of dystonic spasms, it generally is used as an anti anxiety medication it also has somewhat of a mood stabilization effect and an anti-seizure effect as well) their body builds up a tolerance to it and if they discontinue it at more than the exact titration rate their psychiatrist states there is the potential of extreme withdrawal symptoms (which happened to me when I discontinued it at a faster rate than my psychiatrist directed in 1998, I made sure never to do that again and I did end up going back on it). If a psychiatrist gives direct instructions for a person to discontinue it immediately (which is rare) this is usually done in a hospital to monitor for the withdrawal symptoms so they can be treated. Klonopin is generally discontinued under the direction of a psychiatrist only if there are side effects of concern or interactions or a person has become addicted. There is a related discussion to that last issue here:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Addiction-Substance-Abuse/Preparing-to-get-off-Klonopin/show/43226

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I'm just curious so I learn something, what is dangerous about the withdrawal specifically?

[ILADVOCATE]

That is extremely dangerous and will cause withdrawal symptoms.Usually Klonopin is discontinued at a slow titration rate. Generally doctors don't advise it for that reason but if they believe that to be medically neccessary then they usually have this done while a person is in the hospital as it can be dangerous. It would make sense to speak to the doctor who suggested this and find out why.