Xanax to Klonopin substitution plan?

So I have a friend who currently takes 1.5-2mg of Xanax a day... he wants to move over to Klonopin so he can start tapering (he can't do a Valium taper because of the aggression Valium can cause and he takes testosterone injections for medical reasons) but I have no idea what to tell him. He has tried switching to Klonopin before but he was mixing the two and they were counter acting each other. I don't want him to have to go through what I did (c/t 6-8.5mg Xanax a day to Klonopin 3mg a day)...

It would be best to do a slow crossover much like Dr Ashton suggests for Valium, but substitute one for one since they're the same strength.

I switched from Xanax to Klonopin. If I hadn't I'd still be on the same dose as your friend---totally stuck! With Klonopin's slower decline in blood levels, I can tolerate a taper now whereas on Xanax, I could not. I could not tolerate Valium's mood effects or nausea either, don't feel bad...

I am almost halfway off now!

Should prob update my sig line.. lol

 

I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. I'm not too great with taper stuff.

 

I do know that Klon and Xanax have approximate equal strengths in each 1:1 ratio of dose. I found this to be true in my experience when I swapped out 1.5mg X for 1.5mg K. I did it too abruptly however, so go at the pace Ashton recommends, like Pamster mentioned. I bet he will do great once he stabilizes on it.

 

L'andy 

 

I guess I need to actually RTFM because I haven't seen anything in it so far about a schedule to cross from Xanax to Klonopin... considering the difference in metabolism, rate of absorption, and peak levels... the switch has to be pretty precise to avoid nasty X withdrawals.

In another post you mentioned being on klonopin 2 mg 2x/day and wanting to taper off rapidly.  I'm confused about why you would want to do that if you still are looking to crossover from xanax.  Could you clarify please? 

 

BTW, there isn't a crossover schedule to use for xanax to klonopin in The Ashton Manual but you can patternone after the xanax to valium schedule, just using a 1-1 substitution since 1 mg xanax = 1 mg klono = 20 mg valium.

This is actually for a friend of mine who wants to get off Xanax and onto Klonopin and taper off of that. Sorry for the confusion.

Gotcha.