Clonazepam half-life 18 to 50 hours? So your blood level increases daily?

This may not interest others, but for some reason I looked up the half-life of clonazepam (18-50 hours) and was startled to see how long it is and the implications.

 

Do I have this right? Using a 24-hour half-life, if you take 1 mg. every night beginning on Monday, then on Tuesday after you take your pill, you'll have 1.5 mg. in your system? Night three, it's half of what was in your system on Tuesday, plus another 1 mg. which makes 1.75 mg. ?

 

The increases get smaller and smaller as the days go by, but the total continues to increase. So when I thought I was "only" taking 1 mg., after a week of taking it, I had 2 mg. in my body?

 

Using a longer measurement of 36 or even 50 hours is much worse.

 

Has anyone else ever thought this through? I'm off the medication now, but it's no wonder tolerances can build up so fast.

 

Or is my brain just not thinking straight? I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!

Yup, only there come a point of steady state at which point there is negligible increases.  I totally obsessed about this during my withdrawal.

 

The amount remaining is equal to the intial amount time 0.5 to the exponent of (the time you're interested in like 24 hours divided by the half-life)

 

Amount in your system after 24 hrs for a half life of 24 hours if you add 1 milligram each day goes like this:

 

Day 1 1.000

Day 2 1.500

Day 3 1.750

Day 4 1.875

Day 5 1.938

Day 6 1.969

Day 7 1.984

Day 8 1.992

Day 9 1.996

Day 10 1.998

 

edited for typos

I had never considered this about half life.  It would support the slow taper, because there always seems to be some of the drug in the "bank".  This seems to be a good explanation as to why I feel cuts days after instead of right away.  I put less in my system, and I have to use up what is stored.  Does the drug itself change in potency after sitting in your system?  I mean do I have any of the drug I took last year still hanging on in my tissues?  I was toxic when I found the BB forum, and for the first month things actually felt better as I dropped the dosage.  Now it is the reverse, and is it because I am at half the original dose I began tapering down from?  I cannot do the math, but how many hours in 2 months? 

I appreciate your responses and am glad to know that at least one other person was fascinated by this.

 

My best to you.

Let me add that I started thinking about this with the idea that a person (me??) might be able to take clonazepam a couple of times a week, say a mg. on Sat. and a mg. on Tues. without becoming addicted again.

 

But after figuring out the blood levels with that long half-life, again using 24 hours, I realized this person would carry an average level of about .5 mg., plenty to cause a dependence. Even once a week would be a level that is too high, close to .3 mg.

 

I have too clear a memory of how hard it was to get off the drug when I was at .5 and .3 mg. Ugh.

 

Once we're off we have to stay off, folks.

good point.

Once we're off we have to stay off, folks.

 

I agree. That said, a handful of benzos (alprazolam, lorazepam, the benzo-analog thienobenzodiazepine Etizolam) have half-lives short enough that using them once a week at moderate doses will cause them to be entirely eliminated between doses.

 

The reason I started by saying "I agree" is that once you've become dependent on a class of drugs, ever, your brain chemistry is changed and even after prolonged abstinence you will not respond to them in the same way that you would have if you hadn't been dependent. Someone who has never been addicted to a benzodiazepine can most likely take 1mg of Xanax once a week for an extended period without any consequences. Someone who has previously been addicted to xanax or a different benzodiazepine is asking for trouble with this.

 

Related: I recently did crude math on Clonazepam specifically and calculated that the steady-state dose after a month of use is 3.8x the daily dose. Meaning that if you take 1mg of klonopin a day you end up with an average dose of 3.8mg in your body, and if you take 2mg/day (as I did for 5 years) you end up with 7.7mg in you.

Holy cow! I'd never thought about this. I, too, don't generally feel any effects from a cut for several days.

 

I wonder if this would make it wise to hold for longer as we near the end of our tapers? Has anyone figured out where the steady-state kicks in? I know it's different for everyone, based on metabolism, but it's really got me thinking.

 

And it seems to have implications for really needing to go to very, very small doses before jumping.

 

I wish I weren't so math-foggy. It'd be interesting to see the math for tapering, especially at the lower doses (under .05mg, for example).

 

I still have no idea how low to go, or how long to hold, before jumping. I was planning on .03125 as a jump point, but I just don't know.

I know this is an old thread, but found it interesting. Especially as I get lower and lower.

This is very interesting indeed!! Thanks so much for posting it, dmms!!

Once we're off we have to stay off, folks.

 

I agree. That said, a handful of benzos (alprazolam, lorazepam, the benzo-analog thienobenzodiazepine Etizolam) have half-lives short enough that using them once a week at moderate doses will cause them to be entirely eliminated between doses.

 

The reason I started by saying "I agree" is that once you've become dependent on a class of drugs, ever, your brain chemistry is changed and even after prolonged abstinence you will not respond to them in the same way that you would have if you hadn't been dependent. Someone who has never been addicted to a benzodiazepine can most likely take 1mg of Xanax once a week for an extended period without any consequences. Someone who has previously been addicted to xanax or a different benzodiazepine is asking for trouble with this.

 

Related: I recently did crude math on Clonazepam specifically and calculated that the steady-state dose after a month of use is 3.8x the daily dose. Meaning that if you take 1mg of klonopin a day you end up with an average dose of 3.8mg in your body, and if you take 2mg/day (as I did for 5 years) you end up with 7.7mg in you.

 

Short half life benzos are horrible for human physiology.  "Cleaning out" your system and then repeatedly taking them over and over again is very detrimental. For example, using lorazepam as a night only sleeping pill is far more damaging Physiologically, than spreading the dose throughout the day.  Please don't fall into this "cleaning out" line of thinking. 

I wish I knew how to create a spreadsheet in excel, so I could plug in my doses as I lower, so I know approx how much is still in my system. It would give me a better idea on when to jump. Ugh, anyone know how to create one with the formula from the first post?

Wouldn't individual genetics (i.e. CYP450 enzymes) play a major role in how people metabolize medications? There are other factors, like age, kidney and liver function, other medications, and even grapefruit juice that can affect the metabolism of a given medication. On the same dose of the same medication over the same period of time, I doubt that two people would have the same amount of medication in their systems.

 

It would be good to hear from a pharmacist or toxicologist on this question.