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I take 2mg Klonopin for sleep. Ativan helps with stopping my seizures so I take both. The ativan in PRN.My daughter was prescribed Klonopin a few months ago when Vimpat alone wasn't working for her (and other drugs combined with Vimpat before that). We were afraid to try it at the time, reading about dosage tolerance, addiction, withdrawal, and a recent study (September 2014) linking benzodiazepines to Alzheimer's.
She added Tegretol to the Vimpat instead, which only resulted in increased seizures. Her doctor's advice now is to try Onfi, another benzodiazepine.
Since she never gave the Klonopin a try (and we have it in the house already) I suggested she go ahead and try it before getting the Onfi. I'm looking for people's experiences with Klonopin, trying to forget the possible link to Alzheimer's because maybe it will be a drug that works for her. And she does have anxiety so it should help that as well. Anyone have any advice to share?
Hi, Bandmom
I'm sure you are aware that everyone responds to the different medications very differently, and dose requirements for seizure control very tremendously from person to person.
It is a really tough call sometimes, between controlling/improving seizures and medication side effects. I was on clonazepam (aka klonopin) at one point, and then clobazam. Both helped somewhat at first, but I developed a tolerance to them very quickly and they became less effective. For me they also caused very uncomfortable urine retention at times, which can be a side effect of benzos. At higher doses (which I needed to progress to as a lower dose became less effective) it was like I was living in a fog. Personally I will not take benzos again unless it is an absolute last resort.