Posted by Viridis on December 7, 2003, at 1:46:36
In reply to Re: A Balanced Alternative View of Xanax, posted by maxx44 on December 6, 2003, at 22:33:43
Maxx,
I'm confused -- what I said was that my doctor warned me that all benzos (including Klonopin) should NOT be discontinued suddenly, and that gradual withdrawal is always necessary after any substantial period of use. He has had many patients on Klonopin long-term, and has also supervised numerous, very slow withdrawals from this drug (usually due to the patient's desire to stop use). He says these generally work out fine , as long as the taper is gentle and tailored to the patient (although the original anxiety state is likely to return, no better or worse, unless another med like an SSRI proves effective). He is more concerned about Xanax than Klonopin because in his experience, people are more likely to have difficulty with withdrawal, so he monitors its use especially closely and tries to avoid regular use of Xanax in the first place.
He told me all of this from day one, so I can hardly call him irresponsible, even if I do wind up having problems should I decide to go off these meds.
poster:Viridis
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031202/msgs/287326.html