Opinions - L-theanine compared to alprazolam

[DrMuffy]

SWIdr has recently been interested in the amino acid, L-Theanine's effects when it comes to anxiety. He UTFSE about "Theanine" and found little results, so he tried google instead and found the following study abstract comparing L-Theonine with alprazolam when dealing with anxiolytic effectivness. They came with very interesting results...

The acute effects of L-theanine in comparison with alprazolam on anticipatory anxiety in humans.

L-Theanine (delta-glutamylethylamide) is one of the predominant amino acids ordinarily found in green tea, and historically has been used as a relaxing agent. The current study examined the acute effects of L-theanine in comparison with a standard benzodiazepine anxiolytic, alprazolam and placebo on behavioural measures of anxiety in healthy human subjects using the model of anticipatory anxiety (AA). Sixteen healthy volunteers received alprazolam (1 mg), L-theanine (200 mg) or placebo in a double-blind placebo-controlled repeated measures design. The acute effects of alprazolam and L-theanine were assessed under a relaxed and experimentally induced anxiety condition. Subjective self-reports of anxiety including BAI, VAMS, STAI state anxiety, were obtained during both task conditions at pre- and post-drug administrations. The results showed some evidence for relaxing effects of L-theanine during the baseline condition on the tranquil-troubled subscale of the VAMS. Alprazolam did not exert any anxiolytic effects in comparison with the placebo on any of the measures during the relaxed state. Neither L-theanine nor alprazalam had any significant anxiolytic effects during the experimentally induced anxiety state. The findings suggest that while L-theanine may have some relaxing effects under resting conditions, neither L-theanine not alprazolam demonstrate any acute anxiolytic effects under conditions of increased anxiety in the AA model.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract

More research will bring more information about this anxiety reducer. SWIdr is going to do some more researching and experimentations with this drug to see if it helps with his GAD almost as much as his (current) prescribed benzo, clonazepam. Maybe a combo of a low dose of a benzo and L-Theanine will produce enough anxiolytic effects to combat their anxiety. If anyone has any info to donate about L-Theonine, please feel free to post!

[Lehendakari]

I read reports that stated that l-theanine + phenibut is a great combo, but most users describe its effects alone to be very mild and not a good long term solution for anxiety

[Zaprenz]

Swiz's experience with L-theanine can best be described as mild/annoying.

L-Theanine seemed mildly dysphoric although that could be simply because swiz was concentrating too much on noticing an effect.

Swiz has tried alprazolam (xanax) and would not describe the two as comparible.

Possibly a chemical best kept in the minor concentrations (~70mg) found in tea. Nicely antagonising some of the effects of caffeine - reducing the slight jittery effect.

[snapper]

SWIM finds L-theanine to be ineffective. SWIM dumped about 5-7 grams in a glass of water and chugged it on an empty stomach (the rest of the amount purchased) since doses of even a few grams had little effect (note that it has no taste). SWIM found it to still have no effect. Maybe this is just SWIM, but no way would it come close to clonazapam in effect, and clonazapam is a pretty sissy benzo (except for withdrawals). SWIM does feel that it antagonizes caffeine a bit, but not enough to assure it is not a placebo effect.
SWIM also thought the pheibut + ltheanine + gaba combo was great, but found that it was the same without the l-theanine.

[Jatelka]

If anySWIY is interested. SWIJ uploaded the paper DrMuffy refers to here...

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/loc...=1503&catid=27

[DrMuffy]

In SWIdr's experience, L-Theonine was pretty ineffective when it came to treating his anxiety attacks. However, when combined (800 mg) with clonazepam (.5 mg), SWIdr seemed to be much in control of his anxiety than with Clonazepam alone.

[snapper]

Hmm. SWIM's revisited L-theanine since there was some left that SWIM had acquired a while ago with the specific goal of reversing the effects of caffeine. SWIM likes to drink tea and coffee at work and cannot manage without one or both, but SWIM works really long hours and has little time to sleep in between. Often, SWIM is still caffeinated when getting off of work and has trouble sleeping. Also, SWIM has no short acting sleep aids to help. L-theanine, if it turned off the effects of methylxanthines, could be very useful. Any refs for this effect ?