Morning all
My husband has spasms in his legs and very bad tremors in his hands.
He tried Clonazepam in 2010 when he was mobile and it made his legs very weak and he used to not be able to sit upright with them so we stopped it.
Since then his MS has progressed and he now uses wheelchair only…~It has been recommended again…Could anyone let me know how you get on with it…does it make you zonked out thorughout the day even though a tablet is to be had a night time.
Thanks
Lushcaz
I take a tablet every night (0.5mg I think). It doesn’t make me zonked out in the day. When I was first prescribed it, I took it in the morning, just because it seemed a reasonable thing to do. I suffered terrible sleepiness in the day, which I assumed was coming from the MS - I was prescribed Modafinil for it. I moved my Clonazepam to the evening and I was fine but it wasn’t until years later that I realised what had been going on.
I don’t think Clonazepam causes muscle weakness for me. I tried a Parkinson’s drug as an alternative for a few days and my walking was much worse when I was taking that.
Clonazepam is a benzodiazipine. This class of drugs is associated with an increased risk of dementia - there was a big study on it reported in the British Medical Journal half way through last year. It was also reported in some national newspapers, which is how I heard about it. Valium (diazepam) is also in this class of drugs and that is very widely prescribed. The study found that people on these drugs for more than a few days have an increased risk of dementia. When they are prescribed for leg spasms, people take them for years (I have). But I am still taking it, because I think the lack of sleep from the spasms was worse than the dementia risk.
Sorry to post such depressing stuff - I felt I was not given full information when I was prescribed the drug.
Hi Sewingchick,
Thanks for replying.
Hubby has always suffered from fatigue and been on modifinal for years now.
Also with the progression of his MS he has frontal lobe issues and may have neuro dementia already. We and I say we as we are in this together will maybe try it again and see what happens.
Hi
I take 2 * 500 microgram tablets last thing at night. I was told the reason : to stop me feeling stiff first thing in the morning and to help me sleep. When first prescribed I was having a terrible time falling asleep at night.
Originally I was only on 1 but I was waking up feeling very stiff so it was suggested that I take an extra one, stiffness in the morning went away, good result.
I know they are addictive but the drug helps me to sleep at night and I wake up feeling something close to normal. There are no effects during the day
Patrick
Hi
I take 1mg at night, for a little while it did make me feel like a zombie, that was 8 years ago. The zombie phase lasted a few months, but it not so bad now.I have now become secondary progressive & it does make it a lot easier without my legs doing their own thing at night.
Take care
Innel
bump
I love Clonazepam. I’ve only been taking it for about 6 months but I was waking up every night with painful spasms in my legs. Now I take about 2 mg (split into 0.5 in the afternoon, 1mg about 8pm and 0.5 just before bed). It’s made my sleeping so much better, I’ve slightly cut down the amount of Baclofen I take and don’t have so many wakeful nights.
Sue
Correlation is not causation anyway. It has not been proved benzodiazepines actually increase the risk of dementia, or whether people with early, undiagnosed dementia are simply more likely to present with symptoms for which benzo’s are prescribed.
As they’re commonly prescribed for sleeplessness and/or agitation, which are both associated with dementia, my money’s on the latter.
I think people with early dementia may be approaching their doctors with problems years before anything is formally diagnosed - and walking away with prescriptions for benzodiazepines.
I think it has something in common with MS, in that people may already have had it several years, and sought treatment for symptoms, before it’s diagnosed.
A friend was diagnosed a couple of years ago (with dementia, I mean, not MS), and in retrospect, the signs had been there, but nothing very drastic. She’d always been a bit self-absorbed, so when she didn’t remember things I’d said (sometimes quite big things, like losing my job, or having an accident that put me in A&E), I rather unkindly suspected her of not listening.
I didn’t think: “Oh dear, she might have dementia”, because you just don’t! So I reckon it was a good few years she’d been having symptoms, before they got bad enough to prompt investigation.
Tina