Librium taper

[[Buddie]]

Hi,

    I have been doing a Librium taper, having substituted for Klonopin.  It has been going well but am coming towards the end, and have not found as much stuff on how people do coming off Librium, since Valium is the most common.  More specifically, when I started the switch from Klonopin to Librium, I was on 1.0 to 1.5 mg of Klonopin per day, and had been taking it for over 10 years, sometimes being as high as 3 mg per day.

     My doctor eased me over to 20 mg of Librium.  Now we are down to 10 mg, with an additional 5 mg once in a while as needed.  The next step will be do move from 10 mg to 5 mg, by taking alternating doses of 10 and 5 mg -- i.e. 10 mg one day, 5 mg the next day.  With the long half life, the idea is that this will give me a dose somewhere in between.
 
     Based on most of the equivalency charts I have seen, 10 mg of Librium is a very low dose -- less than .25 of Klonopin.  So I am hopeful that going forward this last stage shouldn't be too difficult, or any more difficult than having gone from 20 mg to 10 mg.  Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with Librium and how well people do toward the end?  My one concern is that becaue of the long half life, having been on Librium for about 6 or 7 months means that I actually have much more in my system than 10 mg because of the build up.  My doctor has said that although the long half life gives one a resevoir of medication so it doesn't wear off very quickly, the effective dose is basically what one is taking day in and day out.  So that if I have been taking 10 mg for a month, that is all my body feels as if it is getting  --i.e  a very  low dose.

     Any thoughts would be most welcome.

Pfeff

[[Buddie]]

Hi Robert,

Welcome to Benzo Buddies!

What size pill do you have? I"m assuming 5mg? They are capsules, right? Though alternating doses every other day would probably be ok due to librium's long half life, It is not ideal. You might want to consider liquid titration, which would allow you to make smaller reductions. All you have to do is open your capsule and mix it's contents with milk, then drink a portion of it. You can taper more gradually this way.

Also, it's best not to take extra doses as needed, as this confuses the gaba receptors and may aggravate withdrawal symptoms and delay recovery.

Dont' worry about it building up in your system. Remember, with each new dose you take, a previous dose is wearing off. There is a good explanation of benzo blood levels this somewhere on the site, I'll look for it.   

TC. 

[[Buddie]]

Thanks TC.

Yes, I have the 5mg capsules.  That is the biggest disadvantge with Librium--it doesn't come any smaller than 5mg and the pills can't be cut, but disolving it in milk would seem to be a good substitute if the alternating dose approach doesn't work.  Alternating was what I used to go from 20 to 15 and from 15 to 10, so I am hopeful.

I had spoken to a compounding pharmacy about making smaller doses.  They can do it, but it is very expensive and not covered by insurance. 

My doctor said that the other option is to go to Valium, which can be cut into smaller doses.  He avoided valium at the outset because he thought it would be more sedating than Librium.

[[Buddie]]

Yes, valium does tend to be more sedating for most people. I would just keep on doing what you are doing, and if it starts to feel like it's not working for you, try the liquid titration.


But it sounds like you are doing ok.
BTW, my name isn't TC. It just means take care. 
I"m sorry if I confused you. 

[[Buddie]]

Thanks -- sorry I didn't pick up on that; I'm not as e-mail savvy as I should be.

[[Buddie]]

Thanks -- sorry I didn't pick up on that; I'm not as e-mail savvy as I should be.

   That's ok, I didn't even know what that was until a couple months ago. 

[[Buddie]]

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=6177.0

Robert,

here is the post I was telling you about, explaining benzo blood levels.