Cheney on Klonopin: addiction, withdrawal, etc.

[Guest guest]

I asked Cheney about the concern sometimes voiced - that Klonopin is addictive.

Some patients who ask their doctors for it are refused for this reason.

Cheney was adamant that Klonopin is not addictive. In treating thousands of

patients, he's never seen it happen. Addiction involves (1) psychosocial

disruption, (2) accelerated use, (3) inappropriate use, (4) drug seeking

behavior. He reiterated that he's never seen anyone addicted to Klonopin,

according to the clinical definition of addiction.

He said some might make a case that it is habituating. Habituation means that

once you're on it, you can't suddenly stop taking it - you have to taper off of

it gradually. But he was even cautious about calling it habituating. Or at least

making sure that people knew that the process of tapering off a habituating drug

is not the same thing as withdrawal.

He said the first thing to keep in mind is that Klonopin is given for a

physiological problem - excitatory neurotoxicity. (Remember we're shifted

slightly toward seizure on the continuum from seizure to coma.) Klonopin is

given to manipulate threshold potential - to keep neurons from firing

inappropriately and thus being destroyed. He stressed that Klonopin should never

be prescribed unless you intend to raise the threshold potential. " Problems

arise when you begin to use benzodiazapines for reasons other than threshold

potential manipulation. " But CFIDS patients have a " threshold potential

aberration " and need Klonopin (or something similar) to avoid brain injury.

He has never seen a patient who was recovered have trouble coming off Klonopin.

" When you no longer need the drug, coming off it is very easy. That's been my

experience in treating CFIDS patients. "

On the other hand, real trouble arises when someone tries to come off Klonopin

who still has an injured brain. If you give a drug for a particular problem,

then of course there will be trouble if the problem still exists and the patient

stops the drug. It would be like a thyroid patient stopping his thyroid

medication. All hell breaks loose. But it's not because the drug is addicting,

and it's not withdrawal. The condition still exists and the body lets you know

it has a legitimate need for the drug.

" When a CFIDS patient who is still experiencing the underlying mechanisms of

brain injury goes off Klonopin, there is a burst of excess neural firing and

cell death. That's the havoc we hear about that is mistakenly called

withdrawal. "

Cheney said that to call Klonopin addicting is to belittle the problem it

addresses. (or reveal complete ignorance of it?)

So, to summarize: Klonopin is not addictive; those who no longer need it have no

trouble coming off it; and those who do need it and stop taking it may have a

very difficult time - and lose their neural protection.

More to come on Klonopin. Yeah, it's like a book! :-)

Take care. Carol