I take a quarter of a 0.5mg clonazepam tablet twice every day. It calms down my dizziness and reduces the rocking sensation so that I am now able to work again (I have started out with 20 hours per week). I saw my Neurotologist today and he wants me to increase my clonazepam dose and says not to worry about tolerance. I can’t help worrying though, but the daily dose really helps me take part in life again and manage my job and my kids, so - I choose to trust him… I try to at least. He participated in a MAV conference last fall somewhere in the States and he showed me a hand out he had received, don’t remember who authored it, but it stated clonazepam as a first-line preventative medication along with amitriptyline, nortriptyline, propanolol, depakote, topimax and all the other known preventative medications… Hard to know what to believe.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the information from your neurologist. If you can find the handout somehow or find out where and when that conference was I’d appreciate it. The handout would be a very good thing to make available here to everyone. I could easily scan it to a PDF. Let me know if this is possible.
On the valium front I still cannot feel comfortable taking it daily. I’ve cut back to 2.5 mg before bed now for a bit to see how I feel. So far since the pizotifen trial I’ve had wicked headaches daily that I can’t seem to ditch. Not sure what the trigger is exactly. There’s too many other variables right now.
S
Scott
(Thanks for this amazing place filled with so much info and helpful people.)
Forgive me if this is the wrong place for this question, but since it’s about Valium:
You mention Valium in your signature and in several posts. Are you using it to calm down anxiety and help you sleep or is it actually working on the migraine or stopping the dizziness? Any outstanding side effects for you?
thanks
John
Hi John,
Glad you’re finding some good info on the site. That’s the aim – to make this the one stop shop for all things MAV.
Anxiety is a problem for me with this condition and comes in two forms – either psychological stuff from life events (the stuff I might cook up in my head) or purely physiological anxiety that is a result of migraine activity. Both have the same outcome really although the former is more destructive if it’s ongoing and I don’t stop fretting over whatever it may be. When either occur or if I happen to be feeling particularly off and/ or visual vertigo (computer scren induced) is bad, then Valium is what I grab. Valium tends to kill the anxiety which prevents the migraine from really sending me into hell and knocks out or reduces visual problems. I prefer it as a short-term attack and usually that’s fine but right now I’m on it daily because I’ve been feeling wound up slightly about changing jobs. It only seems to take the smallest amount of anxiety these days – what one would consider a normal response – and I’ll get all sorts of symptoms going off as a result. I really need to stay Zen 24/7 but that seems to be impossible for me unless I live in a cave somewhere on a mountain top.
Have you tried it?
S
All you guys feeling anxious about taking a benzo need to take more of it, it helps with anxiety don’t you know? Oh the irony… 
Love the benzos. I take Librium 5 mg/day. It has the longest half-live of all of them. It’s commonly prescribed for alcohol withdrawal. I’ve learned to take it twice a day when the weather is really blustery - if there’s a big weather change coming in.
It’s funny - I just had a urine drug test for work this morning and took in my pill bottle so they’ll know it’s legal. The lady had to make about 5 copies at different angles on the copy machine to get all the print on the round bottle.
Anyway, it helps me enormously. I figure so what if I need it everyday? My neurologist says it’s fine.
Scott, I just found the handout, my neurologist gave it to me when I saw him after he got back from the conference. I do not remember where the conference was or what it was called - and it doesn’t say at the handout - I only remember that he told me that he attended it every year and that it was about migraine and therefore also MAV. I will ask him next time I see him.
The handout is apparently written by Michael Teixido, and somehow adapted from Robbins (2000): Management of Headache and Headache Medication, 2nd edition. Michael Teixido is also co-author of the paper ‘migraine - more than a headache’ that you got from Joan and posted here on this forum July 2010, but you probably remember that 
I will try to scan the handout Monday at work and send it to you.
Thanks Chris. In the meantime, I’ll check out those references again you mentioned. I have a hard drive full of hundreds of papers on MAV … I can’t remember where half of the stuff comes from anymore except for the really exceptional papers.
Cheers … Scott
It is an interesting discussion what counts as a preventative and what does not. According to Dr. Hain ‘The term vestibular suppressant is a vague one generally used to indicate Drugs that reduce Nystagmus provoked by a Vestibular imbalance or which reduce motion sickness.’ (www.tchain.com/otoneurology/treatment/drugrx.html) If a drug is considered a vestibular suppressant does it mean that it can’t be seen as a preventative?
Chris
Scott,
Thanks for your thoughts on Valium. I have never tried it. Plenty of life events anxiety interrupting my sleep and even more so with the stress of Mav symptoms. But my current rx, Amitriptilin is giving me good nights of sleep and I’ve started deep breathing/meditation in the mornings, which seems to help. But good to know I have something to fall back on if necessary.
John
John – good that you’re doing the meditation. It does work and is evidence-based for those who might be skeptical. Have you had a look into “mindfulness” meditation? I started doing some daily yoga (downloaded a 40 min session to follow) last week and that has made an impact too. A good distraction and feeling a little bit more fit.
As for Valium, it’s a great one for those moments when you need something to zap this – if say you have a meeting coming up but might be feeling dizzy or just can’t calm down your body with all the migraine stuff going on.
Scott
I have been participating in a ‘mindfulness’ group that was sponsored by the local hospital group here in the Chicago area. It was group therapy but you can follow up with individual sessions, which I am doing. Basically it is a combination of deep breathing, relaxation, positive thinking, and cognitive re-training. I have always been pretty good at that stuff, so it seems to help me, which is odd since I tend to have a very complex view of the world as a series of conflicts and pointless absurdities, and I hate ‘happy talk.’ But nevertheless I am quite able to be hypnotized, to mediate deeply and lower my pulse etc. But it only goes so far; when you are spinning in your chair, there is not much that mindfulness can do to stop it – you have to combine it with other approaches. But overall I would recommend it. It is non-judgemental and teaches us to accept our situation.
Many years ago I tried hypnotism, which was recommended by my dermatologist of all people, during a period where I suddenly had an outbreak of adult acne (I had just moved to Florida and I think it had something to do with the weather, since I never had it when I lived up north). The hypnotist was a nurse practitioner who worked with cancer and AIDS patients. I went in totally skeptical, thinking, “No way will this work on me.” But it worked immediately, with good result.
Bottom line, to answer Scott’s question about whether anyone has tried mindfulness, I have tried it and think it is worthwhile. See if there is a group at your local hospital or HMO, that way it is covered by insurance.
I’ve got a few Valium left from when my doctor grudgingly gave me some a couple of years back. After reading this thread I thought I’d try a low dose (2.5) at night for a few days - see what happens. Took one last night - didn’t notice a thing - either after I took it or today. Actually I remember when I took them before I didn’t really notice anything. I wonder if this means that they won’t help me, or maybe I should try 5mg.
Interesting thread though. I remember years and years ago asking my doctor for benzos when I was having trouble upping my SSRI dose - he refused. Seems to be like getting blood out of a stone with most UK doctors.
I agree about the Valium - I dont think anything under 5mg will help me. I’ve taken 4mg in a split does am/pm and it helped for a few days before I upped my medication… last few days I’ve been taking 3mg a day and it’s probably done the bare minimum. Plus I take it during the day as my meds are enough to knock me into a coma of a night…
And funny how doctors are … my GP always ASKS me - Carrie, do you have enough Valium to keep you going or do you want some more - I always say I want MORE just incase he ever decides to stop offering the stuff. I could eat them like smarties (but I dont) 
Even though I seem to be responding well to Lyrica, I’m still having the odd 0.25 of clonazepam. I keep the little brown bottle in my handbag like a best friend. I’ll count them everyday just to be sure I always fill on a repeat prescription request before running out. Don’t seem to have a problem getting repeats at the moment. I dread the day they cotton on!
Is that better than Valium, do you think? What’s the difference?
— Begin quote from “Muppo”
I agree about the Valium - I dont think anything under 5mg will help me. I’ve taken 4mg in a split does am/pm and it helped for a few days before I upped my medication… last few days I’ve been taking 3mg a day and it’s probably done the bare minimum. Plus I take it during the day as my meds are enough to knock me into a coma of a night…
— End quote
Crikey - 1/2 of a 2mg tablet is enough to knock the edge of my really bad days and allow me to function - I’m not normally med sensitive either. My GP will probably have a heart attack on friday as I need about 8 scripts (migraine, asthma and eczema meds for 10 weeks away!) am going to try for another valium script as well (I like my chances though as she gave me the valium for flying and even offered me sleeping tablets too!) . I dread to think what the pharmacy bill will be!