Posted by Stephen32 on May 21, 2011, at 14:15:30
I want to come off of my 4mg Klonopin daily which I have been taking for around six months because of severe anxiety. Tolerance has kicked in and sleep is getting worse.
In the past Depakote ER was pretty useful for a relatively fast and smooth benzodiazepine withdrawal. As I don't want to take benzos again after the W/D I thought maybe the combination of valproate (Depakote ER) & tiagabine (Gabitril) might be a good long-term strategy for treatment resistant social / generalized anxiety. I also had some mood swing problems in the past.
As valproate and tiagabine increase brain GABA levels by different mechanisms of action there should be a synergistic or at least additive effect IMHO. The safety of the combination has been tested in patients with epilepsy receiving up to 30-50 mg/day (much more than necessary for anxiety disorders) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15693805
What do you think about the idea?
poster:Stephen32
thread:985874
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110515/msgs/985874.html