Clonazepam By Accord (Top voted first)

I have been taking 2 mg daily of Teva clonazepam for a few years. I have been noticing that my memory (both short and long term) is increasingly more affected by the drug. Over the past year I have found myself being on "auto pilot" alot. My pharmacy just switched my prescription to the blue accord clonazepam arbitrarily. Is there any evidence supporting the accord brand being easier on "cognitive fog"? Also, due to this fog, I would like to taper off of benzos for good. Could you recommend a safe taper schedule for clonazepam? Thank you in advance.

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Hi John. I believe I can help you. I have been on clonazepam 8 mgs. for 25 years and have successfully weaned completely off of it both times with little to no withdrawal symptoms. I used the techniques in a book called the Ashton Manual written by a Dr. specialist in benzos and how to wean off of them with years of personal experience weaning patients off of them successfully. It is said to be the "Bible", if you will, of how to wean completely off of benzos. You can Google it and actually read it online. It recommends that if the person is on any other benzo besides diazepam, to gently cross over to the equivalent mg. dose of diazepam first, and then to wean straight off of diazepam (Valium). She recommends this because diazepam is one of the benzos with the longest half-life of all benzos of 200 hours, meaning it will take approximately 200 hours for half of the diazepam and its active metabolites created in the body when taken, to clear the bloodstream. Since it clears the bloodstream so slowly, this should, in theory, make it easier to wean off of diazepam than other benzos with a shorter half-life. The book has a chart with all the approximate mg per mg. equivalencies of all legal prescription benzos to diazepam. And these equivalencies are generally accepted by the medical community. The only thing that didn't really work for me, was the switching from clonazepam to diazepam first, then weaning straight off of the diazepam. It's as if my brain " knew" I was trying to trick it. Although diazepam is still a benzo with antiepileptic, antispasmodic, muscle relaxant, and anti-anxiety properties, it's still a different drug. I was feeling withdrawals with the diazepam even with a little higher dose than the equivalency mg. dose I was on clonazepam. And I was getting very drowsy.

Diazepam is more hypnotic than clonazepam and can make people drowsier. So I decided to wean straight off of clonazepam thinking it may work as well given its pretty long half-life of approximately 35 hours. And it worked! The Ashton manual recommends a weaning off process of about 5-10% every 2 weeks or so. I recommend you try the 10% reduction first. You may surprise yourself and find out to have almost no if any withdrawal symptoms at all. But everybody's different. If the 10% reduction is causing you too bothersome withdrawal symptoms, don't dismay. Just increase the dose back up to your previous dose, and reduce it by 7.5% for two weeks and see how that works. Try to stay at a reduction pace of no less than 7.5% every 2 weeks if possible. Remember, the higher the % reduction rate and the time frame you use will depend on how fast you get completely off of the clonazepam. Listen to your body. Don't hesitate to make small changes if you have to. If a 7.5% reduction is still causing you to get bothersome withdrawal symptoms, go down to 5%. It's okay. Now, you may also try reducing the dose every 10 days instead of every two weeks at a 10% reduction if you're doing great when reducing your doses by 10% every two weeks. That'll also get you to finish weaning off faster. But if you ever make a reduction that causes you too bothersome withdrawal symptoms, just go back to reducing your previous dose from, let's say, 10% to 7.5. This may very well take care of the problem. Adding another 5 to 7 days if necessary at times is also okay. Just try to never increase you dose back up to 2 previous doses because this can be counterproductive and confuse your body in the weaning off process.

Sometimes when a person is down to 0.5mgs a day or less, the person feels like they get stuck at a certain mg daily dose, having trouble lowering the dose even when taking more time to do it or increasing the dose to the previous dose for another week or so. If you have to stay on a dose 3 weeks instead of 2, by all means do it. But don't throw away all the effort you have been putting in weaning off by giving up. It's better to increase the dose back up, or stay on a dose an extra week or even 2 if need be, than to give up. Eventually you will break that difficult barrier you had. For many people it gets harder when they get to about 0.5 mgs. or less. I know it did for me. But I stayed on my last dose for 3 weeks and that took care of the problem. Use a calculator always. If your using pills, you will have to be switching from the 2, 1, and 0.5 mg. tablets to be able to cut the tablets in 1/4ths when the 10% reductions begin to get really small. Switching to liquid clonazepam is the ideal thing to do to wean off of clonazepam since you can be extremely accurate on the amounts you want to decrease. If you can't get liquid clonazepam, eventually you'll need the 0.5 mg. pills. And if you have a tablet that can actually be split in 8 pieces (there are some, but many can only be split in 4 pieces only. Trying to split them in 8 pieces will cause the pill to crumble into uneven little pieces making the reduction inaccurate). I'm sorry about the lengthy post. But I'm hoping that my writing was understandable and that it will help you in your weaning off process. Always use a calculator to make reductions. Round off when necessary to either the higher possible dose or lower. Use common sense. If it's been pretty tough, round off the reduction to the lower possible dose. If you're doing great, maybe you'd want to round off to the higher possible dose. If you're using the liquid clonazepam, pretty much no rounding off will be needed. It is ideal to use liquid clonazepam. Always use a pill splitter when using tablets. Good luck and message me if you have any questions and hopefully I can have a helpful answer for you.

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I would just want everyone to know that each manufacturer of clonazepam has a totally different effect. Even the same manufacturer changes the way the same pill is made. This is very dangerous because a change in the ingredients can cause many withdrawal problems. Omg if you or a loved one is prescribed clonazepam or any other drug please be sure that you read up of the consequences in the future. Try other alternative first. I never read up on clonazepam and am terrified of what I now know. Take care American because there's no one out there to protect us from these dangerous drugs.

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I don't get how the different generics are so different. It doesn't seem fair to someone who depends on the drug for many years.

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Re: Heartbroken2018 (# 8)

This is so crazy because I've been on the MYLAN brand since 2007, and they just stopped manufacturing it. I called their customers service today, and they said it is being discontinued. I've now been taking the ACCORD brand, and feel like hell on Earth :(. Anxiety and my head feels really tight with brain zaps, can't verbally explain how bad it is. I'm hoping to God that it eventually starts working. I called my doctor and left a message. Walgreens told me in order to switch manufacturers or go to name brand, you first have to call your doctor to do a override Rx of the medication and they have to say the current "ACCORD" "MYLAN", or whatever manufacturer that isn't working, needs to be changed. Then you have to call your insurance's prescription provider and tell them what's going on, and take it from there to try getting it approved. I am a firm believer that not all generics work as well as name brand, and that not all generics work as well as other generics.

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I had been taking Accord 0.5 mg x 2 a day for several years. I do not notice a cognitive fog from it at all. Then they switched me to Teva and it simply didn't do anything. I, as a Nurse, would suggest that you ask your physician to write on the script to give you only Accord. Try it, see if the fog goes away. If not, your physician will wean you off and find something else. Good Luck.

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It all depends on your body and how it processes the drug. Ask your Physician about it or your Pharmacist to change you to Accord. I've been on Accord for many years with no cognitive fog. But that doesn't mean it will be the same for you.

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Hi, I can so relate to your problem. I have been on Klonopin for many years. It has affected my life in more negative ways than anything good I was getting from it for the first year.

I am currently tapering off of this messed up drug. I have to say that the withdrawal from it is worse than heroin. That being said, I am taking 2mg twice a day. I have been working on taking 1.5 mg twice a day for a week, then 1mg twice a day for another week. After I got to that point, I had to slow it down some, stayed @ 2mg a day for 2 weeks, then to 1.5 a day for a week, 1mg a day for a week, 3/4th of a mg a day for a week, 1/2 mg a day..... Until I was down to a quarter of a milligram, then slowly tapered off that dose for about 2 weeks. No withdrawal.

If you don't have low blood pressure, ask your doctor about catapress, a blood pressure med that helps with withdrawal symptoms. The thing about benzos are that they dumb us down, and believe me others noticed it way before you did. It is a terrible drug. If you have anxiety problems, I would smoke pot, but that's me, and may not be your cup of tea.

I sincerely wish you all the best and I advise you to get off any benzos or antidepressants, as I have found that most "mental health issues" are actually caused by the demonic, but try telling that to your Doc, it won't go over very well. But I testify to you that most mental health issues are resolved by a change of heart, a reconciliation with the Almighty.

I hope that this helps, I don't know if it will. Feel free to contact me if you are so moved. Good luck!!!! You can live a much better life without pills, I have never seen anyone get cured by taking psych drugs, ever.

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That is so true, no one will tell you just how dangerous and poison benzos are...This is my second time trying to go off them.Also no two brands are a like!I'm down from 2 mg of Clozopam to .5 pm and .25 am.!yes I'm sick and feeling flu Iike everyday. Body feels like fibro in all muscles and joints...Really don't think I will ever be off this poison!

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I was taking Teva brand no side effects at all, helped with anxiety, insomnia and vertigo. Now Teva is no longer manufacturing clonazepam.
My prescription was filled Friday with MYLAN BRAND, worst side effects ever brain foggy, off balance can't function. Only other brand near me is Accord, hope I'm able to try the Accord and no side effects. I don't want to have to go off clonazepam and go through the horrible withdraw again. Went off 4 years ago when Glaxo the brand name klonopin stopped manufacturing their brand, was not able to find a brand that did not cause side effects, my withdraw systoms took over a year. Never thought I would ever go back on clonazepam again, unfortunately watching my husband losing his battle with cancer became too much for me and my aniexty became severe that it was causing me not to be able to care for him. I needed to be there for him, I was so thankful the Teva brand worked so I could care for him until he passed. Now I'm alone and scared because I can't go through the withdraw alone.

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Re: Heartbroken2018 (# 8)

Teva does manufacture Clonazepam, I filled it in June 2018.

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Re: HRBB (# 10)

I just called every pharmacy I know today and TEVA is discontinued completely....it SUCKSthey did this! They were the only ones that I could tell helped my anxiety..now I’m going to try and switch to Xanax to help with my panic attacks also...ridiculous

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I'm a lot less foggy with the accord if I was going to taper off (I'm not a medical dr) but slowly very very slowly stay on the accord for a while you will like it and it's less intense then when you've grown used to it have them drop your MG to .75 if you were at one MG then after you get used to that .50 then .25 then just stop but don't do it cold Turkey ever it is miserable 9

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Doctors are the best and the worst people to taper you off benzodiazepines. They prescribe them rapidly and taper you rapidly in my experience John,
Hospital is probably best to detox. It's not just your body that's at risk from withdrawal, but your brain's wiring too. I went a few days without and had 7 seizures in that space of 3 days. Seek advice from detox centers. They'll do everything to get you to do a home detox but hospital detoxes are monitored and they usually make you feel as comfortable as possible.

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Klonopin I've been on Klonopin for years started at 2 mg four times a day and wean myself down to 0.5 mg twice a day I'm trying to wean myself down to none but it's hard because I get anxiety attacks I have PTSD I served in Vietnam and I also where's on Rescue at the World Trade Center it could be done but just do it slowly cut the pills in half

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I'm tapering off as we speak. My doctor is actually helping me. That's the best person but if you aren't ready to talk to your doctor here's how it has been for me.

18 YEARS on this crap, I suffer from major anxiety disorder panic disorder and I thought it would never happen.

I was on 2mg (Blue pill) 3X's per-day
Dropped to 2mg 2X's per-day for 1 month
Dropped to 0.5 (peach color) 5X's per-day
Dropped to 0.5 4X's per-day I wasn't happy my body was fine, no withdraw whatsoever but anxiety was increasing.
Dropped again to 0.5 2X's per-day and finally feeling better, learning how to use my coping skills for panic and anxiety disorder.
Next month I will keep dropping by him taking 10 pills away. Which will put me at 1 1/2mg per-day.

All has been done each month.

These pills are very dangerous to do without someone knowing. The withdrawal from the medication can cause multiple seizures. I did it alone during all 5 of my pregnancies but was told I didn't withdrawal because my hormones were changing and shifting I was very confused about that but I just dropped automatically and had no withdrawal symptoms which I do not recommend at all I was still under a doctor's supervision. Please speak to your doctor about this, they'll be very happy to see you come off of them. If not please do the steps monthly, your body will adjust as well as your brain and there'll be no withdrawal.

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I saw my dr last week, she said that memory loss is a “side effect” of being on clonazapam. I’ve been on it for almost 18 yrs. She didn’t seem worried...I’m only on .5 mgs 2-3 times a day.

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Hello, John! How are you? I'm sorry about the problems you're having.

Long-term use of this medication can cause such memory issues, as reported by the FDA. It also carries the risk of being habit forming and could cause side effects, such as nausea, dizziness, headache and irritability.

No, one from a different manufacturer won't likely change it.

Have you consulted your prescriber? They'd be the best person to help you set up a taper schedule. Many times, they have someone start skipping doses, while also gradually lowering. You can't stop this abruptly, because that creates the risk of seizures.

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Hi Elsie, Was wondering how you are doing. Hopefully better. If you can get valium lowest dose and just take 1/4 of the pill it eases your symptoms a bit. But obviously don't take too much. Just 1/4 will help you. Again not too much. You don't then want to withdrawal from valium.

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Re: John (# 7)

Money John. It’s all about money my friend.

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Re: John (# 9)

The Teva brand of Clonazepam (Klonopin) causes anaphylaxis (causes my throat to swell and tighten up so I can't breathe). Accord brand doesn't do that. But I've noticed several drugs coming from other Countries are causing the same problem.

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