Reduction using scale

Hi All,

 

As much as I've wanted to avoid it I have the scale on the way....

 

My 1mg tablets aren't scored.  My .5 mg tablets ARE scored but I still get fairly big variations when I break them.  Its ridiculous I'm eyeballing and guessing and I'd like to be more precise.

 

So in preparation of my next (ONLY 10%) cut, my questions are:

    Do I take it from the evening dose?

    Do I weigh 10 tablets and file down to get exactly what I need weight wise for each dose?  Each time its time to take one?

    At what point is it more practical to crush tablets into powder and make my own with the gelcaps, in advance, for each dose?  Must I add a filler?

    My Dr. wants to hear from me when I'm at .25 .25 and .25  She seems reasonable.  What do you all recommend as far as going to 2x a day or even 1x a day?

 

I'm so disappointed so much time and energy and just mental worry I guess that is going into this but I don't see a way around it.  And I've looked.

 

Thanks for your advice.

 

Rae

 

 

Can you just confirm what your current doses are again please? If I remember correctly you're dosing 3x a day but your signature is a bit confusing as it looks like you're dosing 4x?

.25 .25 .50 total of 1mg a day

 

For splitting scored tablets it's best to use a pill cutter. You get it very accurate. I'll go and search to see if I can find the link to the one I purchased.

 

Usually people reduce their one cut from one dose only. So the 10% will be deducted from one of your doses not split across them. I hope this makes sense. Just remember to calculate your reduction on the total daily dose. I think people alternate their cuts between their doses, but there's no set guidelines. You might want to look at signatures and see how different people have done it.

 

It's really up to you and what works for you whether you eliminate doses. No one can tell you whether it will be successful or not. It's just one of those things everyone has to experiment with themselves.

 

Bob7's method with the capsules is mainly for micro tapering or if you're very low in dose and the scale is struggling with the weight. That's why you're adding the filler- to help the scale with the very low weight.  Once again it's up to you if you want to change methods but you need to change the maths as well because at 1mg you can't taper 0.001mg per day as per Bob's spreadsheet. It's too slow.

 

I think I've answered most question but please ask away if something isn't clear or you have more questions.

Hi StingRae,

 

jelly baby's answers are good. I have been using this pill splitter with great success for over a year. I also use a metal fingernail file to shave my pills down to weight. Taking the average of 10 pills is a good idea, but if you use Teva or Accord tablets, you should do just fine going with a weight of .170g, and assuming this weight for every pill, regardless of the variance. All these pills are pressed from a slurry with a set distribution, so no matter what your pill weighs, it should contain that same distribution (grams active pharmaceutical ingredient per gram full tablet), regardless of weight. Also, I am down to .156 mg K dosing twice a day and reducing from each dose, and I have not switched to capsules and crushed tablets. I actually tried this back in April, and after a week of struggling to feel okay, I went back to shaving tablets. You do not have to go to this method unless you cannot shave the tablets any smaller. Plenty of people have come down simply shaving tablets.

 

Please ask us any more questions you may have.

Hello thank you for your input.

 

I'm curious about the reduction using the scale, can you describe the method?

I've been trying to reduce from clonazepam 1mg  a day, to doses, .5 am 0.5 pm.

 

Thank you.