Anyone tried this extra low dose Clonazepam stuff?

Post Reply New Topic

Hello,
Well I was reading the internets and I came across this:(Antianxiety Drugs Successfully Treat Autism) after some research I found out in the study they did they gave autistic mice 1mcg/kg (micro!gramms) clonazepam (Klonopin) twice daily.
Apparently, it only works with Clonazepam, because only Clonazepam would only affect GABA-A receptors while other Benzodiazepines would also affect GABA-B receptors and worsen social skills or something like that, cant remember but you don't want GABA-B. And it also only works with those extremely low doses. higher doses would just knock you out and make you dumb and most importantly will not have any effect on autism!
for example I (70 kg) must take 0.07 mg (1/14 of a 1mg pill) twice daily. That I call homoeopathic autism treatment.
The research community is going crazy about it. And at such ridiculously low doses, I don't believe it's utterly dangerous for us to try.
Have anyone tried it? would you give it a try?

I take 0.5 mg of alprazolam three times a day. It's a different medication, but is very effective to reduce environmental stressors for me.

Hello omid,

I've read the article last week again and today I decided I want to give it a try. I either have to find a safe-to-digest solvent for it, or talk my doctor into prescribing the drops and dilute them. As several attempts of my kitchen experiments yielded only emulsions, I will try my chance with the doctor tomorrow

Quite a few of us have been discussing this and related Gaba deficiency issues for some time:

viewtopic.php?t=258410

This is a useful backgrounder on GABA issues, impacts and theories from 2011:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4477717/

I'm trying to get off klonopin right now, I took a standard .5 mg for about a year

it helped for a little while but the effectiveness of the drug fades pretty fast

I'm getting cut off, it's doesn't even work anymore and now I have to worry about benzo withdrawals

trying to taper it down, not fun

i would rather of took a shorter acting one as need rather than every day all day, klonopin is a very subtle drug

a 'microdose' wouldn't even be do anything I don't think, at least not to me anymore

I would never take Clonazepam aka Klonopin every day. That makes addiction very probable. Two or three times a week spaced apart in small dosage was not at all addictive for me.

I took Klonopin regularly for a tremor disorder for a while. I took 1mg 3x a day & latter 2mg 2x a day. It helped my anxiety at 1st but quit working after a while. I eventually weaned myself off very slowly & didn't notice any withdrawal effects. Years later my doc started prescribing me point 5mg of it because I feel claustrophobic like when riding crowded buses. I sometimes take it for other reasons like if I'm feeling anxious about something else or will be feeling anxious about it or when my tremor disorder is acting up or if I'm hyper or to help me sleep. It doesn't really make me tired & it's still working after a couple years but I'm worried that I'd build up a tolerance again if I were to take it daily. I take Buspar for my regular anxiety & that helps alot.

Klonopin is too strong for me, but Xanax has worked good for a long time now.

Thanks B19, I will read them all.

I used Clonazepam for a year regularly few years ago without addiction issues. My father, very likely also on the spectrum, uses 1 mg everyday for a couple of years without adverse reactions as well. Maybe it's because of metabolic differences. We both have severe sleep problems as well, and many drugs don't even affect us. Just as an example, high dose lorazepam made me only yawn

I actually want to try GABA and intranasal oxytocin, but I can't get them for the next 2-3 weeks because of logistics. 0,5 or 1 mg really helps with emotional meltdowns with me, so I wanted to give at least it a try. I started yesterday night with 0,25 mg. I will take it ×2 a day for 2 weeks, then I decide if it makes a positive difference.

I'm not sure how many milligrams the ativan pills they give out at the hospital are, but it usually takes at least a couple for me to really feel anything.

Lorazepam dissolved many of my anxietys. The withdrawals were horrific though. I've spent months at a time in hospital with varying issues,but withdrawals from benzos was probably one of the worst things I've been through.

Personally, I think that it might be protective for many if the warnings came with all benzodiazepine drugs about the added risk of taking them day after day for an extended time. The brain all too quickly habituates when to continuous use of any mind altering substance.

I know doctors warn people about long term, daily use - however in all daily use, short or long because of down regulation, the brain gets used to being served up the neurochemical substance; basically it says to itself "oh goodie, I don't have to make this myself anymore". That's what down regulation is, and because of it, when a long time user stops, they go into a sudden and extreme deficit state - because no GABA is being made by the brain itself at that point. and the delivery service has vanished. This is the basis of the terrible post-adjustment reaction some people experience, and as GABA is the brain and mind's calmer, to be without it during that adjustment period can be horrendous for people (and not just with benzos, this is true of many addictive drugs).

Taking these particular drugs on a "straddled" basis rather than day after day seems to minimise the down-regulation risk and after effect; however people don't seem to ever be told this and I sometimes wonder if doctors are either, or exactly what Big Pharma is teaching them about the risks. Anyway, the takehome I hope to convey is to be very careful and thoughtful about using anything which is a brain altering substance every single day, and do your own homework if and whenever you can.

Nope, but if it is like all the other -Pams, I'd prefer to stay out of that relationship. The -Pams don't treat me well. I end up a hazy, drooling, shambling husk unable to even control my arms enough to hold one of my comfort objects to deal with how scary that zombie feeling is.

"Different strokes for different folks" is true of life generally and drugs in particular. Everyone's biochemistry, neurochemistry and gene constellation is unique in some way. Advocating one size fits all medication is a step too far. There is now a lot of evidence that Clonazepam can top up the neurochemical GABA in those who are deficient in it; but studies have shown that not everyone on the spectrum is deficient in it, so topping it up in that group is likely to make them dozy and dopey. Giving them GABA makes no more sense than giving insulin to people who have normal blood sugar.

For those who are deficient (and this can be innate or acquired), anything that tops GABA levels up to a normal level will calm anxiety and anxiety-related behaviour. And it can be a Godsend. However people who think that this is some sort of "cure" for all AS people are misguided. The researchers appear to be overclaiming so far as I can see.

There are studies over some years that show that a bigger proportion of people on the AS have a GABA deficiency than would be expected in a normotypical sample.

Over the past year or so, new researchers in this field have added to basic research on this done in past years by others, and when they replicate it, they are presenting their own research as a startling new finding and breakthrough. Probably this is being done with an eye to the large research funds up offered from certain "charity" organisations which fund research to find "cures" for autism. It's very unethical however.

Raising GABA doesn't cure autism because it doesn't cause autism. IF it caused autism, then all autistic people would have low GABA. They don't.

Needless to add perhaps, GABA is a special interest of mine....