Switched to clonazepam and feeling drugged.

[[An...]]

Hi,  my doc just switched me from 1 mg Ativan to .5 mg clonazepam.  I took the clonazepam this morning and feel drowsy and drugged. The Ativan used to do that too me, but no longer has much of any effect. Do you think the dosage of clonazepam is a bit too high and I could try lowering it abit?  Will the clonazepam make it easier to cut dosages than the Ativan?

 

[[An...]]

I also read somewhere that clonazepam is a very potent drug and harder than others to come off.  Any insight on this?    Thanks!

[[Cr...]]

According to Ashton's equivalency tables, .5 mg of clonazepam is equal to 1 mg of ativan.  So you didn't updose, but there are variations from person to person.  Some people handle certain benzos differently than others.

 

Klonopin (clonazepam) is indeed very potent, 2x more potent than Ativan and 20x more potent than Valium.  However, the potency isn't really the main factor for how difficult it is to come off a benzo.  Most often it is the half-life of a benzo that makes it difficult to come off due to interdose withdrawals.  Xanax and Ativan have a really short half-life, Clonazepam is middle of the road, and Valium has a very long half-life and that is why many people find it the easiest to withdrawal from.

 

Of course some people have found that Valium did not agree with them when they tried to cross over and stuck with their original benzo to taper off.  Again, it varies person to person.

[[An...]]

Thank you Cron,

 

I might try to lower the dose a bit, just to see how it affects me.

[[ba...]]

Your dr. Prescribed the right amount of klop  1mg ativan equal to .5 klop. We all react differently to different benzo's. Klop does have a longer  half life than ativan Valium and liberium have the longest half lives about 200hrs bando