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Taking Klonopin For Anxiety. Will I Be Too Sleepy If I Take Cymbalta Low Dose And Klonopin?

Posted on Wed, 12 Sep 2012

Question: I'm a 60 year old female with anxiety The doctor is giving me doxepin because I dont do ssri very well I know it makes you sleepy Is it any good for anxiety When i get up in the AM I take my Klonopin for anxiety Will I be too sleepy I'm down to 30 m of cymbalta I also take Klonopin at night and .25 of trazadone Im afraid I will get cns depression?

Answered by Dr. Susanta Padhy (1 hour later)

Hi,
Thanks for writing in.
Doxepin is effective against anxiety and its sedative effect usually decrease when you take it for some time. This is also effective against depression.
As far as excessive Klonopin (clonazepan) is concerned, it is primarily an anti anxiety drug. However, its helpful only for decreasing anxiety in short-term but not for regular long term use. This drug also has a sedative effect and the dose of this drug can be adjusted depending upon the extent of anxiety and sleeplessness. Do not try and adjust the dose on your own. Your physician would remain the best person to do that. Long term use of Klonopin might worsen depression. Sometime, when people become dependent, it can cause anxiety in form of withdrawal symptoms

Trazodone makes you sleepy at a lower dose but at higher dose it may act as antidepressant.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Wish you good health

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Aparna Kohli

Follow up: Dr. Susanta Padhy (3 hours later)

can this cause cns depression Im worried it can be life threatening I'm also weaning off of cymbalta 30m I was on 60 last week Didnt have much problem lowering dose would trzaodone be OK at 25 or 50? and I take klonipin in the day for anxiety since it will be awhile before I know if doxepin is helpful will i be too sleepy?

Answered by Dr. Susanta Padhy (11 hours later)

Hi and thanks for the getting back,

I apologize if my last reply was not very clear. Let me try to put in simple sentences today.

The answer regarding your question about CNS depression with the aforementioned drugs is "no". It is not life threatening either.

Increasing trazodone to 50 mg is O.K, if you still have sleep problems. However I recommend you do the dose adjustment under the guidance of your doctor.

Hope this answers your query. I will be available to address any other concerns that you may have.
If you have no follow ups, please close this discussion.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad

Follow up: Dr. Susanta Padhy (34 hours later)

I took the .25 of doxepin last night and 5 of klonopin very tired this morning to get out of bed a little better now Dr cut my cymbalta to 20 from 30 today too usually take my klonopin at 9am lasted til 11:30am I hope you.re correct that this sleepiness will go away should I have my dosage cut? do some people neverget over sleepiness?

Answered by Dr. Susanta Padhy (13 hours later)

I must give you credit for tolerating your sufferings.

I hope things will O.K in due course. I suggest you to be bit patient till then.

You may decrease the dose of Klonopin with the help of your doctor according to your level of sleepiness. With 5 tablets of Klonopin, if you are getting more sleep, then you can decrease the dose of Klonopin

Many people suffering from such problems do get well with treatment; I do not have any doubts with this.

Let me know if you need further assistance. If all your queries are answered, please close this discussion.

Wish you good luck!

Regards

Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad