Clonazepam
Pronunciation:kloh-NA-zuh-pam
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number:1622-61-3
Formal Names:Iktorivil, Klonopin, Lansden, Rivotril
Type:Depressant (benzodiazepine class).Seepage 21
Federal Schedule Listing:Schedule IV (DEA no. 2737)
USA Availability:Prescription
Pregnancy Category:D
Uses.Clonazepam is considered one of the more powerful benzodiazepine
class drugs. Primary medical uses are against some kinds of convulsions, par-
ticularly 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 antidepres-
sant 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 re-
ceived a placebo. Clonazepam is sometimes preferred overalprazolamin
treating anxiety because that condition seems less likely to reappear between
doses of clonazepam than between doses of alprazolam. Clonazepam can be
substituted for alprazolam in order to withdraw persons who have depen-
dence with the latter drug. Clonazepam has been used to fight tics and also
to treat muscle control diseases such as akathisia and tardive dyskinesia.
Among children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who
also have tics, a study found clonazepam could help suppress tics without
harming the psychiatric effect of ADHD medicine. Although clonazepam is
not a multiple sclerosis medicine, it is administered to relieve the affliction’s
symptoms. Clonazepam has helped reduce fainting spells. It is prescribed to
relieve insomnia and to reduce a disorder in which sleeping persons thrash
about. The substance has promoted cure of sleepwalking, including a docu-
mented extreme case in which a sleeping person would drive a car and engage
in violence involving knives. The drug can relieve pain caused by jaw trouble
and has been given to cancer patients to reduce vomiting from chemotherapy.
Clonazepam and the antimania medicine lithium have been experimentally