Benzos Xanax or Klonopin, mg for mg, which is stronger? Asked alot, but let's get a definite

[poppyplanet]

I know this has been covered extensively, and mods, I have searched and did everything, short of studying this area of interest. Some say xanax, some say klonopin. I'm well aware of klonopin's longer half life, making it a longer acting med also having a longer onset of action. Xanax, of course, being the complete opposite in regards to half life and onset time. But when both, xanax and klonopin each reach their peak plasma state (xanax usually 1 hour;klonopin usually 2 hours), which is more potent, statistically, or even just by your own personal experience?

Truthfully, for me, it feel as though xanax has a slight edge over the potency compared with klonopin, but that's just me. Anybody?

 

[HYDRO_CHRONIC]

only thing that'll come into play is the half life

 

[Znegative]

there almost exactly equally potent. I think alprazolam is minutely more powerful, but its pretty negligable.
When I had a xanax habit, I found that two mg of clonazepam got me nicer than two mg of xanax though. Cross tolerance plays a slight role (when you switch benzo's at an equivalent dosage, you'll sometimes get a bit more of a buzz off of the new one-or so I've found), and as was mentioned, clonazepam has a longer half life.

It's much easier to build up a tolerance to clonazepam though. I can take 1 mg of alprazolam a day for a month and still get nice effects out of it, but after three days of 1 mg of clonazepam, it's like taking nothing really. But in general it works out good, because you don't experience interdose withdrawal with clonazepam like you do with xanax.

 

[tricomb]

Xanax is more powerful, although only slightly. Some benzo equivalency charts say 1mg alprazolam = 1mg clonazepam but I find this to be completely false. 2mg of xanax will have a pronounced effect on me, but I can take 12mg clonazepam with no tolerance and feel nothing more than a little sedation. Clonazepam is very ineffective for me, it doesn't help me sleep at all, it doesn't help my anxiety at all, I find it useless.

I'd say it's realistically more like 0.5mg xanax = 1mg clonazepam but if we're judging by experience than I'd say 1mg xanax = 4mg klonopin. I don't know why but klonopin does NOTHING for me.

 

[Psychonauticunt]

Xanax is more powerful, although only slightly. Some benzo equivalency charts say 1mg alprazolam = 1mg clonazepam but I find this to be completely false. 2mg of xanax will have a pronounced effect on me, but I can take 12mg clonazepam with no tolerance and feel nothing more than a little sedation. Clonazepam is very ineffective for me, it doesn't help me sleep at all, it doesn't help my anxiety at all, I find it useless.

I'd say it's realistically more like 0.5mg xanax = 1mg clonazepam but if we're judging by experience than I'd say 1mg xanax = 4mg klonopin. I don't know why but klonopin does NOTHING for me.

From most of the reading I've done on clonazepam, it's one of the benzos with the greatest variance in response among different people (I think I remember reading something like effects varying tenfold per mg/person). For me, Xanax feels a little stronger, though both exert similar effects; Xanax is more amnesic, Klonopin a stronger muscle relaxant, and Xanax's slight superiority in anxiolytic effects is offset by clonazepam's duration.

 

[HdoubleODeezy]

they are equipotent.

i was addicted to 10mg clonazepam /day for 7 years and have also used alprazolam plenty of times.. their dosages are the same but it is kinda like comparing apples and oranges since they are the complete opposite of each other, think of xanax as the heroin of benzos and klonopin as the methadone of benzos.

(that's the best simile i can come up with, not trying to make it more confusing)

 

[GABAking]

I was taking xanax 3 mg/day for 6 months, but I switched to 3 mg/day of clonazepam a month ago and honestly I like it a lot more. It may not have that intense onset like xanax, but therapeutically and for withdrawal reasons, clonazepam is the best choice IMO. I only take 2 mg a day on some days, just cause after a week's use, the drug is always in your plasma 'cause the half life is so long. But klonopin lacks that intense onset that xanax has...instead it kinda just creeps up on you and you're high for multiple hours.

To answer your question, in terms of potency on a single use, I'd say Xanax most definitely. But if you let klonopin build up in your plasma after a week of daily use, 1 mg hits me hard because of the additive effect.

 

[randomness]

I have never tried klonopin but have a fair bit of experience with benzos, having used Diazepam (Valium), Xanax..and also used Etizolam and Zaleplon. The last two are not benzos but work pretty much the same as very effective sleeping tablets (Etizolam is a benzo analogue and is legal to use and easy to get hold of, being unscheduled in some countries).

I guess it depends why you want to take benzos and what effect you're looking for... but for me, I take them for social anxiety and nerves, for which Xanax wins hands down.. It's not as potent as Valium and I find the effect of Xanax much cleaner and my cognitive functioning is ok and I don't feel so drowsy as I do with Valium. Etizolam and Zaleplon just knock me out. I will be asleep within 30-60 minutes after taking one and will sleep soundly for 8 hours without waking up. Zaleplon is unusual because it has a very short half-life, only 1 hour. So it might have some recreational use or medical use where you need it tackle performance anxiety or get you through a difficult situation but without feeling drugged up for the rest of the day. I have not tried it for that though, but it might be suitable at lower doses.

 

[The.Ghost]

Just to clear up some confusion: we're talking about talking about taking one dose with none of the drug already in your system, right?

What would the equivalence be for daily maintenance use? My doc thought that 1 mg clonazepam / day = 1 mg alprazolam / day, but when I switched, I ended up taking 3x as much alprozolam to get the same effects.

 

[GABAking]

Just to clear up some confusion: we're talking about talking about taking one dose with none of the drug already in your system, right?

What would the equivalence be for daily maintenance use? My doc thought that 1 mg clonazepam / day = 1 mg alprazolam / day, but when I switched, I ended up taking 3x as much alprozolam to get the same effects.

that's cause the half life on klonopin is much longer than xanax. Even towards the end of the day, your body still have metabolites from klonopin. Xanax is short acting, which is why you dosed more to compensate.

 

[Znegative]

yeah clonazepam can sort of be used as a "benzo maintenance drug" in a way because of it. While you might feel you're xanax dosages more, you'll probably experience withdrawal between doses, and a faster rise in tolerance. That being said I have really never had a problem when consuming a low dosage (no more than 2 mg) with switching back and forth between the two. It took me a couple of months to begin feeling interdose withdrawal when I was on Lorazepam for a bit, but I just switched back to clonazepam.

Oh and just for the infor .5mg xanax = 1mg lorazepam.

 

[Pjkt2501]

Clonazepam has something like a 20-40 hour half-life, whereas Alprazolam has ~4 hours. Therein lies the answer to your issue.

 

[poppyplanet]

Thank you to all, very helpful.

 

[Alex000]

This is an extremely hard question to answer, and I have used both extensively being a benzo addict. For a simple one-time administration, which is more potent? This question is really hard, but I often think about it. I go back to when I had no tolerance, and I would have to say, you know what the world will never know just like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsiepop. It is just not an answerable question IMO.

 

[mrflowers00]

xanax by far

 

[Tommyboy]

It also depends on the properties they possess. One may be a stronger anxiolytic than the other, while the other is a stronger hypnotic, and then there is the anticonvulsant effects to take into consideration.

I'm not completely sure, but I think that xanax is the stronger of the two when it comes to hypnotic effects, and klonopin is the stonger anticonvulsant, and their anxiolytic effects may be equipotent.

 

[eukaryote]

According to the big chart on the wall in the E.R. I work in, they are considered equipotent m.g. for m.g. In my experience, alprazolam is better for treating panic and acute anxiety, whereas clonazepam is better for general procedural sedation and works very well when co-administered with a neuroleptic to treat psychotic episodes and anesthesia emergence reactions.

For recreational use; I find them more or less the same.

 

[LOGan1314]

IMO i guess xanax is "stronger" but kolopin seems to last longer? i dont know it comes down to half life which has already been said but IMO k-pins seem to make me think im not fucked up but really am and xanax seems to hit me "harder" and last shorter. This is all in my opinion so u should listen to the moderators bro.

 

[neutrophilis]

Will a doctor perscribe both of them at once. Im on clonazepam 0.5mg twice a day. They work brilliantly for what i call my "ticks" I had a seizure and ever since then i been getting "ticks" but clonazepam killed them completely but as far as my anxeity goes they are not doing the job ive had to buy some etizolam to help me out in that department and they have been working well but are very easy to build up a tolerance, anywayz going to ask the doctor today and bring my friggin etizolam with me and let them know the shit i have to do because of there incomteptent perscriptions!

 

[DooMMooD]

Id say bringing a box of etizolam do your docs office is not the right way to go about getting them to write you more benzos....in fact I'd say if you want to keep your klonopin script that thats a really terrible idea.

And just to add to what everyones saying: kpins are supposedly equal or stronger, on a mg/mg basis. But as MANY have said: klonopin is a more subtle effect for me. Like i'll eat 5mg of kpin with no benzo tolerance and just be chillllllllll. I take a stick of xanax and i'm stumbling around slurring my words and i'm wicked "fucked up". The kpins definitely work, but their effect isn't as pronounced IMO.