Study suggests that taking Clonazepan for 2 months can resolve symptoms (CAUTION)

[rlopes]

55 minutes ago, Onemorestep said:

Absolutely. As someone who has been through benzo withdrawal and never felt quite the same I would say caution is important haha. I also worry that the withdrawn brain is more primed for withdrawals in the future via kindling. This has been my experience at least. 
 

Still, it’s a tempting offer isn’t it. Take 6mg of klonopin a day for 2 months and reduce your hppd?...

 

...can I do it on a beach too somewhere ?

Yeah it's super tempting... Getting this "cured" in only 2 months. Just note that the suggested dosage is only 2mg daily, not 6mg.

[Jay1]

2mg is still a big dose. I've had memory issues on that dose and just fall asleep a lot.

On my honeymoon, i did 3 weeks taking 2mg a day... When I returned, I had some withdrawal issues, hard to sleep, increased anxiety etc. 

I'd be interested to know when the doctors took the follow up survey too, as you can feel some relief for the first few days after stopping klono.

[SomebodySomewhere]

*Double post*

Edited May 18, 2021 by SomebodySomewhere

[SomebodySomewhere]

17 hours ago, Onemorestep said:

Absolutely. As someone who has been through benzo withdrawal and never felt quite the same I would say caution is important haha. I also worry that the withdrawn brain is more primed for withdrawals in the future via kindling. This has been my experience at least. 
 

How quickly did you taper, if you don't mind me asking?

I'm going to be re-starting a Klonopin taper soon, and this is a concern I have, is that this garbage drug has permanently fucked up my brain.

 

On topic: If this is true it's great news, but given the small sample size in the study I'd take it with a grain of salt. A bigger study would need to be conducted.

That said, I started taking Klonopin shortly after developing HPPD, and have been on it for around 15 years (which is a stupid thing to do...don't do it), and I also boozed (also dumb). Anyway, my visuals are gone these days, so that does make me wonder if there is a connection, especially since @Hall89mentioned knowing someone who had done the same.

[Onemorestep]

8 hours ago, Jay1 said:

2mg is still a big dose. I've had memory issues on that dose and just fall asleep a lot.

On my honeymoon, i did 3 weeks taking 2mg a day... When I returned, I had some withdrawal issues, hard to sleep, increased anxiety etc. 

I'd be interested to know when the doctors took the follow up survey too, as you can feel some relief for the first few days after stopping klono.

I would like that too. I’m very distrustful of these scientific studies sometimes in that they are trying to prove something. So yea they may show x y or a but did they decide to include the debilitating withdrawal the person went through? Or that “hey visuals permanently reduced—but they now have worse anxiety. Let’s not include that part”.

 

2 is a lot better though gotta say. Wonder what the improvement timeline is. Thing is too—there are 100 percent people who have gotten hppd and have been put on 2mg of klonopin off the bat. Hell my doctor gave me one mg no questions asked back in 2012 and I didn’t even seem that anxious. You’d think we’d see more anecdotal reports. 
 

but then again, playing devils advocate, if a person got hppd and then got klonopin for a few months and went off with Improvements— would they know to post that? 

 

I think 2mg is worth a shot if someone wants to do it. I wouldn’t cold Turkey it though. Even a few days is enough for some people to feel tolerance and withdrawal especially if they’re brains are already weighted towards glutamate vs gaba. 

[rlopes]

On 5/17/2021 at 12:45 PM, Hall89 said:

Studies actually proving that HPPD visuals, like vs, can go away? If so, pleasr share.

This is a just a n=1 case report. When I find more I'll post here.

Src: https://www.bjmp.org/content/25-years-hallucinogen-persisting-perception-disorder-diagnostic-challenge

Edited May 22, 2021 by rlopes

[rlopes]

Some more cases of improvement, using various medications.

 

 

[Hall89]

Have anyone here except Onemorestep tried this?

[idontknow]

guys you talked a lot about 2mg/day Clonazepam being a lot, and how it developes tolerance fast, but anyone knows a safer way to try it?

i have hppd for almost 2 years (the pandemic years, worse than all) and i want to try something. some days I'm great and somedays i just want to give it up, and seeing the smallest improvement on my visuals would really help. I'm just really tired of all the patterns...

Clonazepam is easy to get in my country and my therapist would probably be on board because it can help with anxiety...

[idontknow]

just wanted to point out too that I read the pin topic about commonly used medications but it doesn't talk a lot about Clonazepam like what would be a good try out for trying to lower symptoms like visuals and stuff, because it says that 0.5mg is recommended, but for no longer than 3 weeks. So how can i take? 2 weeks yes straight and then two weeks nothing? 2 times a week? alternative days for like 2 months? 1 time a week forever? ... i tried to talk to some doctores about it and it just fucking fail. so i appreciate any help, and maybe i can try to explain my plain to my doctors after you guys explain to me... oh, and going back to the pin topic it ends with that stuff about taking when need,but if i took just when I needed, is talking about anxiety right? visuals i would need 24/7 because i got them all the time '-'

 

(sorry about my english --')

[rlopes]

3 hours ago, idontknow said:

just wanted to point out too that I read the pin topic about commonly used medications but it doesn't talk a lot about Clonazepam like what would be a good try out for trying to lower symptoms like visuals and stuff, because it says that 0.5mg is recommended, but for no longer than 3 weeks. So how can i take? 2 weeks yes straight and then two weeks nothing? 2 times a week? alternative days for like 2 months? 1 time a week forever? ... i tried to talk to some doctores about it and it just fucking fail. so i appreciate any help, and maybe i can try to explain my plain to my doctors after you guys explain to me... oh, and going back to the pin topic it ends with that stuff about taking when need,but if i took just when I needed, is talking about anxiety right? visuals i would need 24/7 because i got them all the time '-'

 

(sorry about my english --')

Yes this is not talked about because it's definitely not a first line of treatment. And although I believe it may work, there's no way to make sure you won't develop dependence / tolerance.

IMO you should go for the most established treatments first, that is Lamotrigine or Keppra. You gotta follow the protocols correctly though.

[idontknow]

17 hours ago, rlopes said:

Yes this is not talked about because it's definitely not a first line of treatment. And although I believe it may work, there's no way to make sure you won't develop dependence / tolerance.

IMO you should go for the most established treatments first, that is Lamotrigine or Keppra. You gotta follow the protocols correctly though.

problem is keppra and lamotrigine are indicated for cases of epilepsy, never ansiety (and that's what all my doctors say i have...), so I will not find a dr on board to give me a receipt for neither... I know most of us fight to find a dr who believe our condition but thing is I just couldn't find one for the past two years and I want to try something. At least I can TRY to convince a dr here to prescribe me Clonazepam (and still will me hard). I was thinking about trying a low dosage a few times a week, but I don't know what that is. Like idk 2x a week 0.5mg? is that too much?

[rlopes]

4 hours ago, idontknow said:

problem is keppra and lamotrigine are indicated for cases of epilepsy, never ansiety (and that's what all my doctors say i have...), so I will not find a dr on board to give me a receipt for neither... I know most of us fight to find a dr who believe our condition but thing is I just couldn't find one for the past two years and I want to try something. At least I can TRY to convince a dr here to prescribe me Clonazepam (and still will me hard). I was thinking about trying a low dosage a few times a week, but I don't know what that is. Like idk 2x a week 0.5mg? is that too much?

I still think you should try the conservative treatment first. But if you want the clonazepam protocol, it's stated in my first post. Serious risk of addiction though.

Tell your doc to look at the DSM-5 entry 292.89 (F16.983)

Edited June 20, 2021 by rlopes

[Jayc101]

What year was this study and year this was posted?

[rlopes]

On 6/25/2021 at 7:23 PM, Jayc101 said:

What year was this study and year this was posted?

The article is attached in the first post.

[Lucas]

On 5/18/2021 at 7:57 PM, Onemorestep said:

I think 2mg is worth a shot if someone wants to do it. I wouldn’t cold Turkey it though. Even a few days is enough for some people to feel tolerance and withdrawal especially if they’re brains are already weighted towards glutamate vs gaba. 

What do you mean by that ?

I get withdrawal after more than 2 days of using along with pretty bad memory issues, does that mean something regarding glutamate vs gaba in the brain ?

[Hall89]

Does anyone know if the patients had type 1 or type 2 HPPD?

[Hall89]

On 5/15/2021 at 2:32 AM, neffbull said:

I'll look around more when I have a moment but this is what showed up when I searched Dr. Abraham HPPD klonopin.

"According to Abraham about half of those with HPPD will fully recover over five years. 

That's sadly not true, even on his own homepage he states that HPPD is permanent. See below:

 

"The patients that I was studying, on the other hand, described continuing visual disturbances that had lasted for many years from their last use of LSD. Either this was a condition that could slowly reverse in time, or HPPD, which had yet to be named, was permanent." 

 

https://www.henryabrahammd.com/the

[Hall89]

And another reply! I talked with a guy from Australia a couple of days ago, he got severe HPPD ~11 years ago, but he had no idea what had happened to him, he even tried ECT treatment, but then he met with a psychiatrist that diagnosed him with HPPD and prescribed him Clonazepam based on the study discussed here.

 

After 3 days on 4 mg 95% of his symptoms were gone and he stayed on that dose for 10 years without them coming back, so then he weaned of it over 1½ years and the HPPD didn't come back. Later on he smoked a joint though and everything came back, so now he's back on Clonazepam with the same effect.

 

If Brivaracetam doesn't help me as Lamotrigine did, i will give the Clonazepame treatment a go, because i don't have anything left to lose.

[Lucas]

Hey, isn't 4mg over 10 years an awfully high clonazepam use ?

95 % of symptoms gone would be expected tbh lol but it is kinda crazy that his HPPD didn't came back afterwards

Good (for real) for him, but yeah it sounds like a last hope solution to me...

This feels really scary to try (provided you find a psychiatrist willing to put you on such a high dose for a long time which I assume wouldn't be too common ?)

[Jay1]

There's every chance he recovered naturally and just carried on the clonazepam for no reason. 

Clonazepam is a magic bullet for us, but it seems very unlikely to be a cure. Tread carefully. 

[Hall89]

On 5/19/2023 at 10:51 AM, Jay1 said:

There's every chance he recovered naturally and just carried on the clonazepam for no reason. 

Clonazepam is a magic bullet for us, but it seems very unlikely to be a cure. Tread carefully. 

I don't believe, or i'm certain, that severe type 2 HPPD can't go away, nor does Abraham if you look at his site. Maybe mild cases were the person don't get any non-visual symptoms, but for us that got severe visuals, head pressure, brainfog etc i'm 100% certain there's no hope. 

Edited May 28, 2023 by Hall89

[Hall89]

On 5/18/2023 at 9:59 PM, Lucas said:

Hey, isn't 4mg over 10 years an awfully high clonazepam use ?

95 % of symptoms gone would be expected tbh lol but it is kinda crazy that his HPPD didn't came back afterwards

Good (for real) for him, but yeah it sounds like a last hope solution to me...

This feels really scary to try (provided you find a psychiatrist willing to put you on such a high dose for a long time which I assume wouldn't be too common ?)

It is! Yeah, it's crazy! But it happened to the people in the study as well. But this will be my last resort, i still have Keppra Gabapentin, etc to try. But living a life with all the visual symptoms, which are at a 10/10 for me on top of all the non-visual ones is a death sentence for me, since every day is pure torture.

[brake]

10 hours ago, Hall89 said:

It is! Yeah, it's crazy! But it happened to the people in the study as well. But this will be my last resort, i still have Keppra Gabapentin, etc to try. But living a life with all the visual symptoms, which are at a 10/10 for me on top of all the non-visual ones is a death sentence for me, since every day is pure torture.

Yeah bro this sucks!

[Sharlot]

I take clonazepam 2 mg for 3 weeks, the anxiety is gone, but the short-term memory is terrible. Be careful