Clonazepam (Klonopin) and Parkinson's disease

Hello everybody, this is my story about an unwise withdrawal from Clonazepam (Klonopin) (K) and my Parkinson's disease's Dx.

I was put on K following severe depression and insomnia after the passing away of my mother.

As I said in my presentation, I was put on K 1mg before bedtime by my Doctor, but he never told me to quit a so addictive drug!!

This was almost 13 years ago, but in mid 2014 I began to notice a mild tremor in my right hand, that under stress converted itself in an embarrassing shaking.

It did come and go. Otherwise, I was a perfectly normal person, until February this year, when I did a very unwise and rapid reduction in dosage from 1mg to 0.5mg, supposing my symptoms were due to the building up of TOLERANCE.

At the beginning I was doing quite well, until May 28, when I experienced the first horrible panic attack of my life.

Tremors got worse, so I went to a Neurologist in July, who diagnosed me with Parkinson's disease. Seemed my life was crumbling around me.

I looked for a 2nd opinion, and the new Doctor was not so sure of my Dx, due to the "atypical" pattern of my tremors...

He ordered a MRI, that showed no problems, meantime I upped my dosage to 1.25-1.50mg per day.

Also went to a Psychiatrist, who put me on Mirtazapine (Remeron) 30mg x day for my severe depression.

I told ALL my Doctors about my 13 years "in love" with the Clonazepam (Klonopin), but everybody did or said NOTHING... All them seemed to be deaf.

Then... I did some research on Google about "Drug Induced Parkinsonism" (DIP) and found a medical paper from the National Institute of Health (N.I.H.) titled "Diazepam induced Parkinsonism", but, sadly, NO text available.

Is well known that Antipsychotics, Lithium, Metoclopramide and many other drugs may induce or mimic Parkinson's (DIP), and we at BenzoBuddies know that Diazepam (Valium) is a close cousin of Klonopin, being another of the Benzo family.

My question to my fellow BB members is:

May Klonopin (Clonazepam), unwise or rapid withdrawal symptoms, or otherwise TOLERANCE, mimic Parkinson's disease?

Somebody fellow in BB experienced DIP due to Benzodiazepines?

A DatScan could shed some light into the problem, but it's not affordable presently.

Awaiting some hopeful words, I want to thank you all for reading.

Fab

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Hey There, Its a bit a late reply to this topic, but I hope you still get a notification of it. I am wandering if you are still using Clonazepam, if you managed to taper it off completely. How is it going with the parkinson symptoms? Almost the exact same story is happening over here (like literally in detail almost completely the same story, including second opinion etc, same dosis), and we are wandering the exact same thing, if the parkinson symptoms are induced by the Clonazepam and therefore possibly be misdiagnosed too.

I really hope you are doing fine now and that you are free from the Clonazepam and from the parkinson symptoms! It would be nice if you can write a small update of how things turned out, since no-one replied to this message yet. Would be great. If someone else knows something more on this, we are looking forward to all replies. Thanks in advance

 

Hello, I know very little about Parkinson but all the mentioned symptoms are typical of benzo tolerance/withdrawal (tremors, panic attacks and even depression). I think it's wise to investigate but if the physical exams show nothing, don't stick with doctors' opinions unless it's one of the few doctors that understand benzo withdrawal. Otherwise you may get into a spiral of medication and further problems. Almost everybody here has a story of misdiagnoses.

Hope things go well for you

 

 

I have had severe muscle issues, tremor, shaking, and involuntary movements since coming off of klonopin.  I have had 2 complete neurological workups.  At 7 months off, while trying to taper from a non-benzo muscle relaxer (due to EXTREME muscle spasms, tightness, and involuntary movements I have to take flexeril), I started getting involuntary movements and tremors in the trunk/abdomen/back region.  For the last 5 months, I have barely been able to walk or even sit upright at times, and it just a few weeks ago started going away.  Looking at me during this time, a person would have thought I had full blown parkinson's disease.  (Think Michael J. Fox commercials when he is moving at his worst).  Due to a short term increase in flexeril, in addition to changing my diet, these movements finally stopped!  I am hoping they are gone for good.  It has been about two weeks, and although I still get the mild trunk shaking on occasion, it doesn't turn into the full blown involuntary movements and tremors for hours at a time like it was doing a few weeks ago.

There is no doubt that Clonazepam screws up our CNS.  My reward for following the doctor's orders and using Clonazepam is Atrial Fibrillation.  I am not familiar with Parkinson's but it sounds as though the cause is related to issues with the CNS. 

Hi All!

 

Know it's been a while but thought I'd see as it's the only thread that fits my problem!

I was on K for under a month (see my signature)

And three days after stopping and switching to V I developed serious full body tremors.

Have never had that from benzos before, hands yes but that's it.

 

Now I've had to go on baclofen as w/d on V was not working on its own for the tremors which tender me unfunctional. Obvs the K really effed up my CNS...

The V helps but interdose the body tremors start.

Terrified of coming off and seeing what's I'm left with... Did it get better?

Does it just take time to heal the CNS?