Thought I'd never need to walk into a pharmacy with one again, but I just got new scripts for clonazepam (0,5-1mg/day) and temazepam (20mg/night).
Went to the doc because although the clonazepam was working alright, the long duration, in combination with the temazepam for the night, meant I was on benzos 24/7. I asked if there was something shorter-acting I could have, so that I could medicate when I need to function outside of the house, go to lectures etc., but be sober at home and possibly face and try to learn to deal with the anxiety and panic attacks when I have no fear of public embarrassment.
She prescribed me 30x10mg oxazepam, 3x daily. Pretty rubbish choice, I'm having a telephone consultation the day after tomorrow and I think I'll have to have it changed to something else. At equivalent doses (0,5mg clonazepam = 20mg oxazepam - though subjectively for me it feels more like the equivalent dose, in relation to any other benzo, should be 30mg for oxazepam, as I find it quite weak), the oxazepam is both more sedative and less anxiolytic - so poorly suited for what I need right now - and it takes longer to take effect, so all it has going for it is the shorter duration. I dunno what she may suggest next - as far as I know, anxiolytic benzos prescribed here are alprazolam, bromazepam, clonazepam, clobazam, clorazepate, chlordiazepoxide, diazepam, lorazepam, medazepam, oxazepam, and prazepam. Some of those have fairly long half-lives with active metabolites and long durations of action, though, so they're not ideally suited to my situation (to keep anxiety at a tolerable level and panic attacks at bay for a few hours a day).
In the past few nights I've also had to up the temazepam to 30mg/night and I hope that doesn't continue.
While I dunno about doctors here, elsewhere they seem to have been unaware of a large variety of benzos - one particular doc in another country did not know of any other sleeping aids other than zopiclone, zolpidem and temazepam - I had to ask him to look up nitrazepam on his computer, and after reading up a bit, he reluctantly wrote me a script. Hard to say whether I'll have to specifically ask for something, or wait for the doc to recommend something.
