Increase of clonazepam

[skyfire322]

As some of you know, most of my seizures are absence in nature and I have constant tremors.

I'm not the biggest fan of benzos by any means, and my biggest side effect though is I become quite loopy; almost a drunk type of feeling. I'll stumble while walking, slur my words a little bit, etc.

I had told my new epileptologist that absence seizures were my worst enemy, so he decided that the best course of action AS OF NOW would to be to increase the dosage of the Clonazepam from 0.5 mg to 1.5 mg. I've been on that dosage for the past two days, and sweet mother of Nicolas Cage.... It feels like I'm back in college party mode right now.

Working in a call center makes things worse because many people call in think I'm drunk! (Luckily, all my supervisors and the HR department know what's going on and are working with me)

Couple questions.
1.) Since he ordered blood levels on all medications, do you think they will also check Clonazepam levels?

2.) He prescribed it at night, which is when a lot of myclonic jerks occur. When I wake up I feel hung over. If I take it in the morning, I feel loopy but don't have any jerks or auras, so there's almost a Catch 22 to the situation. What would you do in this situation? Obviously notify the doctor probably?

 

[Nakamova]

1. The blood test SHOULD include checking the clonazepam levels, but it never hurts to ask the doc to make sure. And ask if you can have a copy of the results mailed to you for your files.

2. Any chance you can split the dose between morning and evening? And/or can you experiment with taking the evening dose a little on the early side (i.e. with dinner) to see if it helps reduce the hangover effect?

 

[lindsayschu2]

How long does your doctor plan to have you on it? Did he say? I'm coming off clonazepam and while it was absolutely needed to stop frequent sometimes status myoclonus for a while I ended up on it longer than was good (5 months) and it's just not fun getting off it. Just asking that question. To Nakamova's suggestion, I split my dose and that worked in my case. I was on 1.5 a day for a while at the beginning (.5 during the day and 1 at night) and felt like you did (but boy I slept well). But tolerance builds pretty quickly, and people usually stop feeling that way (that's the point of physical dependence). I would just be cautious about being on it too long because these drugs really aren't good for the brain long term. I feel for you--I'm sorry you are having these problems.

 

[skyfire322]

That's actually a good idea splitting it.

He didn't say how long, but I'm *assuming* that things will change pending the MRI and EEG results. He said once he gets the results, he will be adjusting medications accordingly.