Benzodiazepine clonazepam

The long-acting benzodiazepine clonazepam can be used as a first-line agent for those patients with particularly severe symptoms who are unable or unwilling to wait for the delayed therapeutic benefit of an antidepressant. Clonazepam can be initiated as a monotherapy for those without comorbid depression or in conjunction with an antidepressant for those who are also depressed. In the latter case, clonazepam can be used transiently with a plan to taper and discontinue it once sufficient time has elapsed to experience benefit from antidepressant therapy. 

Ultimately, it is a drug s half-life combined with its potency that dictates its utility as a sedative-hypnotic. Like other benzodiazepines, clonazepam (Klonopin) can be used to treat insomnia, but its long duration of action renders it prone to hangover effects at doses needed to treat insomnia. Nevertheless, low doses of clonazepam (0.25-2 mg) are a treatment for PLMD and are also used to treat RLS. When hangover effects of even low doses of clonazepam are a problem, other benzodiazepines can be used. 

Benzodiazepines Clonazepam Absence Myoclonic Akinetic 50 to 85 5 metabolites identified urine is major excretion route... 

More than 90% of RED patients are male and usually older than 50, although sometimes it can be seen in children, teens, and young adults. Fortunately, RED is relatively rare (occurring in less than 1% of the population) and is effectively treated with the benzodiazepine clonazepam (Klonopin). 

But later, in Phase II, after two years of continuous use, the SSRIs may contribute to a more ominous motor syndrome, the REM sleep behavior disorder described in chapter 8 as the enactment of dreamed movement. Eor reasons still not well understood, the drugs interfere with our normal ability to inhibit motor outputs. As with tardive dyskinesia victims, patients who develop SSRI-induced RBD may find that their sleep disorder does not abate when they discontinue the drug. The RBD can itself be treated with benzodiazepines—Clonazepam, for example. But that may be throwing good drug money after bad. And a more disturbing possibility, not yet observed, is that the SSRI-induced RBD will evolve in the same way that spontaneous RBD does to full-blown Parkinson s disease. 

Benzodiazepines Clonazepam (Klonopin) Clorazepate (Tranxene) Diazepam (Valium) Lorazepam (Ativan) Potentiate inhibitory effects of GABA... 

Treatment will call upon dopamine agonists, opioid medications, a benzodiazepine (clonazepam) that increases total sleep time, and drugs most commonly used as antiepileptic medication, such as gabapentin or equivalent. Dopamine agonists are the most effective and reduce the sleep deprivation and the patients complaints. But not all patients respond to dopamine agonists and methadone has been prescribed in the most refractory cases (21). 

Side effects. Because clobazam has been widely used as an anxiolytic, its side effects are well known and essentially similar to those of the other benzodiazepines. Thus sedation, dizziness, ataxia, blurred vision and diplopia are the most commonly reported in epileptic patients. One of the most problematic features of clobazam is its tendency to produce tolerance, an effect which may occur more frequently with clobazam than with the other widely used benzodiazepine, clonazepam. It has been estimated that at least 50% of patients develop tolerance. Tolerance to the sedative effects of the drug develop more rapidly than those to the antiepileptic effect. Clobazam should be considered as adjunctive therapy whenever treatment with a single first-line drug has proven to be ineffective. 

Benzodiazepines. Clonazepam is a potent iuiticonvulsant that is effective in absences, tonic-clonic seizures and myoclonic seizures. It is veiy sedative and tolerance occurs with prolonged oral administration. 

Y., Hot, B., Gouezo, F., and Viala, A. General Considerations Concerning the Methodology and Kinetics of Two Benzodiazepines, Clonazepam (Rivotril) and Clobazam (Urbanyl)... 

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