CPAPtalk.com

kteague wrote:

Dogjudge wrote:Lamictal is the fourth drug I've used for bipolar. So far the only one that's been successful. Although the doctor has felt that I'm doing so well, he has me cutting that back.

Just curious as this subject comes up from time to time. Did getting therapeutic treatment for your sleep apnea in any way affect your bipolar symptoms or medication needs?

Bipolar was totally under control prior to the start of apnea.

While I had used klonopin from time to time for anxiety, 0.25 mg maybe once every month or three weeks, it wasn't until I truly got into apnea treatment that my three docs all jumped on the klonopin bandwagon.

Even with my cpap machine, I was waking up 3-4 times per night. Many nights I was getting less than 3-4 hours of sleep for the entire night.

They were all ranting about how safe it was and how it would solve the problem. I started at 0.50 mg per night, but things didn't kick in successfully until I got up to 2.0 mg.

With everything I've been reading about doctors over prescribing the drug, the side effects, etc. I decided I need to look at things a bit closer.

My feeling is that our bodies get into certain behavioral patterns when it comes to various things. Obviously, bipolar doesn't fit into that category.

Given that I am sleeping fairly well, on a fairly consistent basis, I started to question whether the klonopin was truly necessary. Easy enough to go back to 2 mg (I've been at that level for maybe 9 months.

Since I fired my sleep doc, I have to rely on my GP and psych docs. Next appointment with one of them is in three months.

I realize I'm taking a chance, but . . .

Sleep doc essentially had zero bedside manners, but more importantly had next to no respect for his patients. This blew up when I had to wait for over 1-1/2 hours and still hadn't seen him. Nothing from his staff, etc. Even when I walked out, I never got any type of response from him, or his office.

Sheffey wrote:

Dogjudge wrote:that it's time to get rid of the klonopin.

While you may be comfortable with cpaptalk, this is not the best place to get that kind of advice. Instead, see what you find at http://www.psychforums.com/forum.html Search for threads on klonopin tapering and klonopin withdrawal.

Just trying to give the OP some comments on how I was taken off the med, I agree the Dr should be in charge.

I'm tapering off Klonopin after 20+ years. I'm down to just over 1mg a day.
Drop me a line if you ever want to talk

knothead wrote:Just trying to give the OP some comments on how I was taken off the med

I wasn't replying or referring to you or your comments and have no objections to you sharing your experience.

Although I've only been cutting back klonopin for a few days, I had one of my best nights ever last night. I realize that it is probably unrelated to the klonopin, but . . .

Flow graph.

In a perfect world, should the top and bottom lines be flat? i.e. as few changes as possible.

Which top and bottom fields?
If referring to leak line graphs...they won't/can't ever be totally flat due to the vent rate varying a bit because the pressure itself is varying a bit. If you look closely at the leak graphs you will see that the little humps are pretty much correlating with pressure increases.
That bottom leak line...when Mark did SleepyHead he said he could quite master the optimal calculations to deduce excess only leak due to the way the Respironics auto pressure thing worked. It's close but not exact.

If I had that leak line I would be nearly breaking my arm patting myself on my back because it means essentially no excess leak and certainly nothing near enough to worry about.

Pugsy wrote:If I had that leak line I would be nearly breaking my arm patting myself on my back because it means essentially no excess leak and certainly nothing near enough to worry about.

Yeah, but look at the pressures... that's nothing more than a moderate summer breeze

Sir NoddinOff wrote:

Pugsy wrote:If I had that leak line I would be nearly breaking my arm patting myself on my back because it means essentially no excess leak and certainly nothing near enough to worry about.

Yeah, but look at the pressures... that's nothing more than a moderate summer breeze

All I know is that I'm sleeping better than I have. Last night was even better. (Not trying to rub it in to others)

Biggest goal now is to get off of klonopin without everything going crazy.

Dogjudge wrote:All I know is that I'm sleeping better than I have. Last night was even better. (Not trying to rub it in to others)

Oh no. Do toot your horn. CPAP is wonderful. I should have started years earlier.

Dogjudge wrote:

Sir NoddinOff wrote:

Pugsy wrote:If I had that leak line I would be nearly breaking my arm patting myself on my back because it means essentially no excess leak and certainly nothing near enough to worry about.

Yeah, but look at the pressures... that's nothing more than a moderate summer breeze

All I know is that I'm sleeping better than I have. Last night was even better. (Not trying to rub it in to others)

Biggest goal now is to get off of klonopin without everything going crazy.

Dog Judge,

You have every right to be happy with your success as you definitely are not rubbing it in to others. Congratulations.

You're wise not to rush the Klonopin taper as much as you want to get off of it.

49er

I agree in general that you should work with your doc(s) on a safe Klonopin withdrawal. However, not all docs (even some psych docs) understand how slowly some people need to taper to avoid very unpleasant side effects. One of the best sources of information on tapering from benzos is benzobuddies.org. Don't read all of the horror stories, just read the sections on tapering advice.

-b

How are you physically titrating? Cutting tablets, etc.?

I don't know how Klonopin is packaged. If it's a time release pill, it gets more complicated.

I've been doing this for two weeks now and everything seems to be going fine.

When I was using it just for anxiety, not that often, I was using half of a 0.5 mg. tablet.

When I got switched over to using it for sleep, I got a new tablet of 1 mg.

I'm actually quartering them because I don't want to go through the bother of titration. I realize the issues.

Dogjudge wrote:I've been doing this for two weeks now and everything seems to be going fine.

Good to hear! Sounds like you know what you are doing.

Untreated sleep apnea is a major cause of anxiety and insomnia, or what is mistaken for insomnia.

I pray a good CPAP therapy treats all your health problems.

It's just that I've seen a lot of things about klonopin lately, none of it good.

I've also questioned the idea of staying on it.

I feel that I was given it to solve a specific problem that I'm assuming got thrown into the mix to solve a problem that would be temporary once the sleep apnea got under control. Then once that happened, you could wean yourself off of it.

Since it was prescribed because I was waking up in the middle of the night multiple times, and that is now gone, nothing to lose except for getting off of a potentially nasty drug.