Clonazepam (Klonopin, Rivotril)

You can add Baclofen to that list in my experience. To me it is the most reliable of the four. One have to take breaks though, for it to work. In addition to acting on GABA-B, it also opens the potassium channels. Not sure which one.

Hope you find relief. Sadly, I can't take any of them as I'm tapering Diazepam

 

Well I can't advise. All I've done is look at what evidence there is (small studies) and read through the threads time and time again.

There are 4 meds that some respond to:

• Clonazepam
• Gabapentin
• Flupentixol
• Alprazolam

• An SSRI for depression.

• CBT which pisses a lot of people off.
• Hearing aids - 20% get benefit.
• tDCS improved recently with mixed results but leaning towards favourable in 1/3 to 1/2.

Not ideal but what else is there?

I'm not willing to trape around Asia spending 20 grand on stuff with no evidence. Nor could I fly really.

You could mention the contents of this post I suppose.

 

Thank you for your help. I have read your posts many times. I was especially interested in your Flupentixol posts. How can it reduce tinnitus volume though, as it's a dopamine agonist, isn't it? Is your tinnitus noise-induced, do you have hearing loss?

 

Clonazepam has been a lifesaver for me during habituation. Back off the edge of the cliff kind of stuff, just have to be judicious about use.

 

You use it twice a week. It's strange as, for me, sometimes nothing happens for 12-15 hours, then all of a sudden the tinnitus volume drops, well after the quoted duration of action (12 hours).

I guess what I'm looking at is to find something else so I do not have to rely on Clonazepam.

Revisiting Baclofen for the Treatment of Severe Chronic Tinnitus

Is this part of the issue? It's confusing as my tinnitus is screaming now to take it in. I get the GABA-B agonist importance but it talks of L & D isomer types. Which is the one to use given the findings by Westerberg et al.?

 

Anti-agonist I guess as it's an anti-psychotic in larger doses >3 mg. I'm not sure why it helps tinnitus. Many drugs can have hidden properties. During the pandemic, everybody got COVID-19 at an elderly center, except for those on Flupentixol. Weird, right?

Yes and yes.

I don't know.

 

Just once a week usually! Yes, it's very similar for me regarding the effect on tinnitus volume - there's a delay.

The same goes for my newfound low-dose THC edible approach, there's quite the latency between the dose and the effect on tinnitus. Which is an idea for you to try. It's more effective on tinnitus volume than Klonopin (for me):

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/posts/662036/

 

Wow really. Hard to source that stuff in the UK. Some say it raises their tinnitus.

Have you tried Gabapentin/Flupentixol?

Diazepam does zero for me but causes less depression than Clonazepam, something that another poster noticed.

I'm in a panic today because tinnitus in my right ear coincides with 80-90 dB drops at 4 kHz - 8 kHz so I feel fcked. Dr. Shore's device may only help my left ear. Weird thoughts about a cochlear implant and all sorts. Dah. Thanks for your input mate!

 

Too much THC absolutely does spike me, there's a dose response curve you just have to feel out. I haven't tried Gabapentin, hoping I don't need to keep trying new things you know?

I can relate to the Klonopin blues, it really does leave me feeling down sometimes but it's not the biggest issue I have to worry about.

 

I asked my doctor about Clonazepam and he refuses to prescribe it unless it's for epilepsy or end of life. He said it's much more addictive than Alprazolam which surprised me.

 

I don't know what country you're in but in the UK it's usually Diazepam or nothing. Clonazepam rarely is prescribed. Xanax is actually banned in the UK.

 

I'm from Australia. Xanax isn't banned but it is restricted. My doctor will prescribe it but I only use it occasionally for sleep.

 

That's awful... All the drugs I've been put on, the only one to help my tinnitus is the Clonazepam.

 

Yeah, that's why I mentioned it to my doctor, it's one of the drugs that seems to help.

 

How much of that did you attribute to Gabapentin? Do you think the addition of Gabapentin makes the Clonazepam more sustainable? It seems those that reach tolerance quicker are on Clonazepam only as opposed to Gabapentin + Clonazepam.

 

At the risk of sounding blunt, your doctor sounds like a quack or just very inexperienced with benzos. Clonazepam is one of the less addictive benzos while Alprazolam is one of the most addictive.

Gabapentin did nothing for me. So far the only thing I've found that makes any difference is Clonazepam. A 0.5mg dose will reduce the tinnitus volume and also increase my tolerance to the eeeeeeeee so it's not as annoying. I try to limit myself to taking it twice a week and just dealing with the screeching the rest of the time.

Some of you who are able to get Clonazepam prescriptions are lucky. My ENT (useless for tinnitus) refuses to prescribe it. He had me try Acamprosate but that also did nothing.

I have some Clonazepam left over from an old prescription but it's from a doctor in another state that I haven't seen in 5 years so I don't really have a way of getting any more once my current and rapidly shrinking supply is gone.

I'm also trying the Tinnitus Mix audio therapy that's discussed in the Alternative Treatments forum here. I'm using the recommended 1More earbuds and have slept with the sound for 4 nights now. Sadly, I haven't noticed any positive improvement. If anything, when I wake up the tinnitus seems louder and more annoying. I was doing much better when I was sleeping with cricket sounds. But the protocol says 3 to 21 days so I'm going to give it another week and if I don't see any positive change I'll discontinue it.

I'll probably go back to cricket sounds at night, notched audio therapy during the day (it was helping before) and Clonazepam twice weekly until I run out.

 

Yes, it's very helpful, however when it wears off after ~30 hours I get very angry, frustrated and depressed.

 

My doctor is also a psychiatrist, so definitely has experience with benzos, which makes his comment more confusing.

 

Honestly, if a psychiatrist told me that I'd run the other way and find a new psychiatrist like yesterday!

 

Time to try a new psych, you'll find one. One of the proposals I have in my back pocket is to say, just give me 5mg per month. No risk to their license and no risk for abuse.

 

Clonazepam may be the best thing to quiet tinnitus but it is absolutely not a long-term solution. It really should only be used for life threatening emergencies.

You get tolerance to it and need to keep taking more and more forever and then you'll never be off it and will have much more issues when you eventually do try to get off it.

 

While true, you're missing the context of the last few pages. I'm not sure why you think this is net new insight for this thread. It's only mentioned 900 times!

 

Yep, screwed here because of being pushed on Clonazepam. Now I'm dead on it and really dead off it.

 

I don't have time to read back through every single page on every single thread before I comment.

People are talking about doctors being reluctant for prescribing this drug and I'm giving reasons for why they might be.

I'm sorry to hear that. There's always a chance to get off it though. I know some people use different drugs or supplements that also are milder anti-anxiety meds to help the process. Your doctor might not like that but it could help. People might use Phenibut or Kratom while withdrawing from benzos but you really don't want to get stuck on those either.

 

It's been a lifesaver to you. Yes, I hear your concerns but some do well on it. Coming off is a different story and worrying about that will not help.

 

Hello Nick, I had positive experience with Clonazepam 0.125 mg + Gabapentin 300 mg per day. I tried this for a short period, like 5 days, and it works. I was tempted to try the Deanxit + Clonazepam combo prescribed to me so I stopped the Gabapentin and switched to Deanxit. I upped my Clonazepam to 0.5 mg but I believe I was doing better on when the Gabapentin was there. I am not really sure if it is ok to add Gabapentin with Deanxit and I do not know if you are doing so or not.

Are you taking both drugs together without problems?

 

@ma7555, I was not prescribed Gabapentin, despite asking for it.

0.125 mg is a very low dose, so it may be the Gabapentin doing most of the good work. Plus, if you upped to 0.5 mg Clonazepam with Deanxit and it did have less effect on you, I expect Gabapentin is doing most of the work.

I don't know if Gabapentin can be taken with Deanxit. Deanxit is essentially 2 drugs and the one that works for some is the Flupentixol component.

I looked at your comments on Prochlorperazine. Flupentixol is basically a dopamine agonist similar to Prochlorperazine.

As for me, and this is generally typical in the UK, they will not prescribe anything other than antidepressants, which they hand out like sweets. I obtained a small supply of Clonazepam myself back in April to check if it works. It DOES.

So no meds on prescription unless SSRI/SNRI - and in the words of Prof. Dirk De Ridder 'SSRIs can make tinnitus worse, so the question is then what are you trying to treat?'

 

@grate_biff, does Flupentixol have a bigger volume reduction than Diazepam and Clonazepam for you?

 

It's either on or off for me. No in between.

 

Deanxit (with Flupentixol) does not lower your tinnitus per say, it will make you care less (imho).