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Share your experience: submit a drug review
Below are Clonazepam reviews, ratings, comments submitted by patients and caregivers. This information is not vetted and should not be cosidered as clinical evidence. | | Clonazepam review by 57 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | |   |
| Effectiveness: | | Marginally Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | Blepharospasm |
| Dosage & duration: | | 1 mg taken 1/day for the period of 3 months - still taking it |
| Other conditions: | | none |
| Other drugs taken: | | none | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Very slight reduction in muscle spasms around eyes. Ended up also getting light Botox injections in eyelid muscles. This combo therapy has not resulted in a total cessation of eyelid spasms, but has reduced them enough so that I can drive again (the main disability caused by the blepharospasm). Taking the clonazepam at night also helps me get a better night's rest than before I took it. |
| Side effects: | | The first few days I took it I was dizzy and very sleepy. However, those side effects have now subsided. |
| Comments: | | Take 1 MG tab at night before bed. As mentioned above, also got Botox injections to reduce eyelid spasmx. |
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| | Clonazepam review by 52 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Considerably Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | agoraphobia, panic disorder |
| Dosage & duration: | | 2 mg at night taken every night for the period of since 1988 |
| Other conditions: | | none |
| Other drugs taken: | | valium 5 mg as needed | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Taking the rivotril made me sleepy at first but then it just calmed me down enough to be able to cope with life. I was constantly anxious and scared and the rivotril made it possible for me to come down to relatively normal anxiety levels in "safe" situations, whereas before I didn't have any situations I considered safe. It helped me sleep and made me feel more rested and in control. I got pregnant while taking it (I had been trying for 18 years) and I honestly believe that being more relaxed helped me not only to get pregnant but to carry the baby as I had had four miscarraiges previously. I started confronting situations that were uncomfortable to me before and was able to live a reasonably normal life, even though I have become housebound. I feel the rivotril got me through a very tough time in my life. |
| Side effects: | | The Rivotril didn't have any side effects in the long run, it made me a bit sluggish at first. However after taking it for a few years and feeling I no longer needed it, I found it impossible to stop taking it as the withdrawal symptoms were so bad. I have cut the dosage down considerably, from 5 mg at night to one, then I became nervous again and started taking 2 again. I have tried several times to come off the drug completely but the results have been tremors and feeling sick along with high anxiety to the point of hardly being able to speak. I would always go back on it. I never felt I needed MORE...I just coudn't stop taking even a small amount. |
| Comments: | | I was told that panic attacks were caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain in the same area that caused epileptic fits. As Rivotril is a sedative and is given to people with epilepsy they had found that it also helped alleviate panic attacks. I was prescribed it for this reason. I am unable to take anti-depressants which also stop panic attacks because of strong side effects so this was a better choice for me at the time.
I feel that it did the job, but had I known I would be on it for the rest of my life I'm not sure I would have started taking it. But maybe if I was desperate like I was then I would. I was concerned about taking it while pregnant but my child was normal. She did have bad withdrawal symptoms though after I stopped breast feeding her. No one realized that was what was happening when she cried all the time for seemingly no reason. Back then it was unknown that going off the drug caused withdrawal as the drug had never been used short term. Only for epileptics for life. She is 13 now and perfectly normal. However I do feel guilty about having put her through that. |
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