system
Stammering, nervousness and insufficient sleep. Prescribed lonazep. Is the medication correct?
human
hello docotor,                                 my husband used to take lonazep (0.5)as prescribed by his doctor to overcome anti-tension.He continued for 5-6 years.For past 1 yr he stopped it.But recently he observed that he is facing dufficulty in talking,i mean,stammering , nervousness & suffering from incomplete sleep.How can i go about it?
gpt
Hi, Thanks for writing to us, Drugs like lonazep are benzodiazepines that alleviate anxiety effectively but are given for a short duration. They should NOT be taken for long durations unless thoughtfully prescribed by a doctor for that duration (which are done in very few cases- tension not being one of them). They have addictive properties and give a lot of trouble during stoppage of the drug. The problems being faced by your husband is either withdrawal due to stoppage of lonazep (but since he was maintaining well for an year without any medications, it is less likely) or the underlying disorder has surfaced up again. For the latter, there are many options to treat anxiety with safer drugs like selective serotonin receptor inhibitors (SSRIs). Kindly visit your psychiatrist and discuss the same. Also, therapies like cognitive behavior therapy will be very helpful to overcome the problem. Hope this helps,Dr A Rao