Buspar (Buspirone) Patient Information: How Should I Take the Drug at RxList

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May 25, 2012

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Panic Attacks »

What are panic attacks?

Panic attacks may be symptoms of an anxiety disorder. These attacks are a serious health problem in the U.S. At least 20% of adult Americans, or about 60 million people, will suffer from panic attacks at some point in their lives. About 1.7% of adult Americans, or about 3 million people, will have full-blown panic disorder at some time in their lives, twice as often for women than men. The peak age at which people have their first panic attack (onset) is 15-19 years. Another fact about panic is that this symptom is strikingly different from other types of anxiety; panic attacks are so very sudden and often unexpected, appear to be unprovoked, and are often disabling.

Childhood panic disorder facts include that about 0.7% of children suffer from panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder and that although panic is found to occur twice as often in women compared to men, boys and girls tend to experience this disorder a...

Read the Panic Attacks article »

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Buspar Patient Information including How Should I Take

What should I discuss with my healthcare provider before taking buspirone (Buspar)?

Do not this medication if you are allergic to buspirone, or if you have used an MAO inhibitor such as isocarboxazid (Marplan), phenelzine (Nardil), rasagiline (Azilect), selegiline (Eldepryl, Emsam), or tranylcypromine (Parnate) within the past 14 days. Serious, life-threatening side effects can occur if you take buspirone before the MAO inhibitor has cleared from your body.

Before taking buspirone, tell your doctor if you are allergic to any drugs, or if you have:

kidney disease; or
liver disease.

If you have any of these conditions, you may not be able to use buspirone, or you may need a dosage adjustment or special tests during treatment.

FDA pregnancy category B. This medication is not expected to be harmful to an unborn baby. Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant during treatment.

It is not known whether buspirone passes into breast milk or if it could harm a nursing baby. Do not use this medication without telling your doctor if you are breast-feeding a baby.

Do not give this medication to a child younger than 18 years old.

How should I take buspirone (Buspar)?

Take this medication exactly as it was prescribed for you. Do not take the medication in larger amounts, or take it for longer than recommended by your doctor. Follow the directions on your prescription label.

Buspirone is usually taken for only a short time. Do not take this medication for longer than 4 weeks without your doctor's advice.

You may take buspirone with or without food but take it the same way each time.

Some tablet forms of buspirone (Buspar Dividose) may need to be broken before you take the medicine. These tablets have special scored marks on them to make breaking the tablet easy. Do not use the tablet if it has not broken correctly and the piece is too big or too small. Follow your doctor's instructions about how much of the tablet to take.

If you have been switched to buspirone from another anxiety medication, you may need to slowly decrease your dose of the other medication rather than stopping suddenly. Some anxiety medications can cause withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking them suddenly after long-term use.

Store buspirone at room temperature away from moisture and heat.

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