BuSPar's Uses - The Good, The Bad and The Funny. From People Who Have Taken These Crazy Meds...and SCIENCE!

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US Brand Name: BuSpar®
BuSpar's generic name: buspirone hydrochloride

What is BuSpar? BuSpar (buspirone hydrochloride) is a non-benzodiazepene anxiolytic agent (anti-anxiety drug). Specifically the only medication approved in the US in the class of azapirones.

What is the FDA approved uses of BuSpar: BuSpar (buspirone hydrochloride) is approved for the treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. BuSpar is for adults only. BuSpar was approved in 1986.

What are some other, off-label uses of BuSpar (buspirone hydrochloride):

PTSD. The studies have been tiny, open label (everyone knew they were getting BuSpar) and old. One with eight people and one with three each show BuSpar to be moderately effective in treating PTSD.
Treatment resistant depression. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence out there (i.e. people write on the online depression support groups) that adding BuSpar to an SSRI makes the SSRI work better. A double-blind study done confirms this. The people in this study only felt better if it worked within a week, so you may not want to give it too long of a chance. Another study found it to work as well as Wellbutrin as an add-on, but it was still in the range of the placebo effect. BuSpar was studied as a treatment for depression some time ago, who knows why that didn't go anywhere. Somehow in the suck-ass world of depression BuSpar is used only as an add-on to other medications.
Even if BuSpar doesn't make an SSRI work better as an antidepressant, BuSpar has been shown to help reduce that nasty sexual dysfunction that often accompanies the use of SSRIs. You'll know within a week if BuSpar will make a difference in your nookie abilities, and it seems to work better for girls than boys.
And if it doesn't work for either of the preceding two, at least BuSpar can help you stop grinding your teeth if the SSRI you take has caused bruxism (teeth grinding / jaw clenching). There's another case report. And some others with no abstract, covering pretty much every SSRI along with Effexor.
Autism in children, because autistic children don't count as human and thus make perfect guinea pigs. Who gives a fuck about informed consent? In any event BuSpar was tested to make life easier for the parents, in this case to treat hyperactivity. Gosh, what do they do about those NT kids bouncing off of the ceiling? There was one teeny study and one case study. At least BuSpar seemed to make the autistic kids' lives better as well without messing them up like some other meds do.
Migraines. According to this decent-sized double-blind study, BuSpar is shown to be good for prophylaxis and reducing frequency of migraines. However, if you get a migraine, whether you take buspirone or not, it'll still suck just the same.
In place of methadone in kicking heroin. In an OK-sized (29 people) but really thorough study, BuSpar works as well as methadone tapering once an addict has stabilized for five days on methadone. A similar study found that BuSpar helped reduce the nasty effects of heroin withdrawl. So for you Trainspotting fans, there's an alternative. For the opioid dependent, in this study BuSpar was shown to help with avoiding further substance abuse and depression, but not to do anything for the anxiety. I don't get it, either.
Controlling aggression in people who've had traumatic brain injuries, or some other organic component to why they flip out and go on a rampage.

BuSpar was also evaluted and failed as or didn't perform well as a treatment for:

Parkinson's. Didn't do anything, but neither did Celexa.
Sleep apnea. Didn't do squat.
Cerebellar ataxia in the elderly. Didn't do anything for this geezer.
Social phobia. The most recent double-blind study proved it a huge bust. All subsequent reviews list it as not being a viable option.
Colonic distention. This was an . . . interesting study to read. Buspirone did not significantly alter colonic compliance, tone, or sensation relative to placebo. If you have colonic distention then Effexor (venlafaxine) is the superior drug.
Pædiatric ADHD. No better than placebo.
Children with anxiety. As a third-line med after SSRIs, then Effexor and TCAs. These docs must really hate the little buggers.
Kicking benzos. No better than either Tofranil (imipramine) or placebo. Which means that imipramine isn't any better than a placebo either.

Click on these links to learn more about BuSpar:

BuSpar's Approved and Off-label Uses BuSpar's Pros and Cons BuSpar's Side Effects How to Take and Stop Taking BuSpar BuSpar's Effectiveness and Comparisons with Other Meds How BuSpar Works Buying BuSpar Global BuSpar PI Sheets and Other Links for BuSpar Comments

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Take care of yourself, and keep taking your crazy meds!

Jerod

If you still have unanswered questions about this or other medications, including which one is, or combination of meds are the best for you, your best bet is to ask on Crazy Meds Talk. Better yet, if you want to let the world know how they worked out for you and want to help out others in their quest for the correct meds, join the party.
If you want to discuss your issues, I suggest checking out one of the various support groups online.
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Another problem is that you may not get a response even if I wanted to send you one. You see, so many dickweeds with malicious intents and too much time on their hands have appropriated the crazymeds.org domain name to use for their spam, viruses and the like. Subsequently some lazy-ass e-mail protection software authors just go by the domain name, and not the IP address. So I've been blacklisted because of the actions of others. Or the software just doesn't like the domain name because of the "crazy" and/or "meds." Or your question about a particular medication will set off spam flags. So the e-mail just wouldn't go through regardless. Sorry.

Hey, did you find this page all by itself through Google or some other search engine? Great! But to really appreciate the entire site, you need to start here.

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Created Wednesday, June 13 2007

Last updated Monday, May 24, 2010

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