What is buspirone?

Buspirone is an anti-anxiety medicine that affects chemicals in the brain that may be unbalanced in people with anxiety.

Buspirone is used to treat symptoms of anxiety, such as fear, tension, irritability, dizziness, pounding heartbeat, and other physical symptoms.

Buspirone is not an anti-psychotic medication and should not be used in place of medication prescribed by your doctor for psychotic disorders.

Before taking this medicine

You should not use buspirone if you are allergic to it.

Do not use buspirone if you have taken an MAO inhibitor in the past 14 days. A dangerous drug interaction could occur. MAO inhibitors include isocarboxazid, linezolid, methylene blue injection, phenelzine, rasagiline, selegiline, and tranylcypromine.

To make sure this medicine is safe for you, tell your doctor if you have any of these conditions:

• kidney disease; or
• liver disease.

Buspirone is not expected to harm 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. Tell your doctor if you are breast-feeding a baby.

Buspirone is not FDA-approved for use by anyone younger than 18 years old, but this medicine has been used in children and adolescents under close medical supervision and at the appropriate dosage

How should I take buspirone?

Take bus-pi-rone exactly as it was prescribed for you. Follow all directions on your prescription label. Your doctor may occasionally change your dose to make sure you get the best results. Do not take this medicine in larger or smaller amounts or for longer than recommended.

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

Some bus-pi-rone tablets are scored so you can break the tablet into 2 or 3 pieces in order to take a smaller amount of the medicine at each dose. Do not use a tablet if it has not been 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 switched to bus-pi-rone 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.

This medication can cause false positive results with certain medical tests. You may need to stop using the medicine for at least 48 hours before your test. Tell any doctor who treats you that you are using buspirone.