Pronunciation: kloh-NA-zuh-pam
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number: 1622-61-3
Formal Names: Iktorivil, Klonopin, Lansden, Rivotril
Type: Depressant (benzodiazepine class). See page 21
Federal Schedule Listing: Schedule IV (DEA no. 2737)
USA Availability: Prescription
Pregnancy Category: D

Clonazepam [Klonopin/Rivotril] Uses. Clonazepam is considered one of the more powerful benzodiazepine class drugs. Primary medical uses are against some kinds of convulsions, particularly in certain kinds of epilepsy, and against panic attacks. For persons suffering from panic attacks, measurements indicate the drug improves both quality of life and work productivity. The drug is also used as an antidepressant and to treat anxiety, catatonia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, the manic phase of manic-depressive behavior, and social phobia in general. A two-year follow-up study of persons receiving brief clonazepam treatment for social phobia found their improvement to be sustained after dosage stopped, and at the two-year mark they were doing better than a control group that had received a placebo. Clonazepam is sometimes preferred over alprazolam in treating anxiety because that condition seems less likely to reappear between doses of clonazepam than between doses of alprazolam. Read the rest of this entry »

Panic disorder is a widely spread anxious state that affects about 4% of all population. Women suffer from it six times more often than men. The typical start of a panic disorder is usually observed in adolescence and in the beginning of a mature age. Read the rest of this entry »

1. If it is the first time you’ve had an attack, try to define the emotional factors which could provoke a strong feeling of anxiety. Find the connection between your feelings, state and antecedent events. Analyze the problem and try to solve it.
2. Try not to develop a limiting conduct even if your panic attack occurred on the street or in the transport. Keep on using a transport and have as active way of life as it is possible.
3. Having the first signs of the panic attack take some benzodiazepines, for example Xanax, Diazepam, Valium, Alprazolam or other. Bear this medication with yourself. After taking the medication, effect is felt in about 20-30 minutes. Such medications as Xanax may stop the attack in full or smooth away the symptoms. With a help of the medication you will stand the panic attack in a benign.
4. If the panic attack happened in a public place – try to take the medication quickly and sit calmly about a half an hour till you feel the sedative action of the drug. If you have not taken the medicine with yourself then try to relax at first, sit for some time and then go back home or to your office (asking not to disturb you). If you still feel bad - call for an Ambulance.
5. During the panic attack try to breathe evenly and calmly even if you want to breathe more frequently. A tachypnoe may provoke a hyperventilation syndrome when with an increase of breathing frequency - a feeling of fear and anxiety increases and as a result they in their turn make you breathe more and more frequently and so on.
6. If your hands and feet grow cold during the panic attack, try to warm them using a hot water for example. You may also take a hot bath if you are at home at that moment. But you should do it only if you have your extremities growing cold however if you have a fever and high blood pressure - you should not do it! This method also helps to stop quickly an attack.
7. It is also not unreasonable to tell about your state to someone among your close relatives who may support you.

Now I think that it will not be an exaggeration if I say that I am a person with a great experience of anxiety / panic disorder. The feeling, which now has its diagnosis, appeared about thirty years ago and I may say that the most amazing thing was the fact that it appeared so unexpectedly and without any reason that I hardly could guess what happened to me. I understood that my state of health was getting worse and worse but I even did not try to manage it as I did not realize that I had a disease and needed a consultation of professional doctors. Read the rest of this entry »