Idea For Tapering from a Pharmacist

        Hi All.

                  Last week, when I was picking up my script, Alprazolam. I had a consult with the Pharmacist. I take 1 1/2 mg at bedtime.

During our conversation, I mentioned that getting on this stuff was one of the worse decisions I ever made and I've wanted off for a few years now. I've been on 8 years. She suggested, start taking it every other day and see how it goes. If there are no bad withdrawal symptoms, after a couple of weeks, reduce it to every 2 days and so forth. Then start the process over again, this time with a quarter reduction and proceed as before. I thanked her for the advice, and she told me, she knows so many people who are in this same boat and want off. My prescriber is no help. Question: Has this type of method ever been mentioned before on here?

    My personal opinion is that it seems too erratic and fast. Any advice would be great.

We generally don't recommend this because if you're dependent your body craves stability. If you take it every other day you create a whiplash effect as your blood serum levels are not stable. For me, if it was that easy, we'd all be doing it and getting off in a matter of a couple of months.

Having been on Alprazolam, and successfully tapered off, I would not try such a plan. It is a very short acting drug and you would be in continuous w/d. No doubt the pharmacist is well-meaning but this is not a sensible taper imo. Maybe you could taper by percentages -- 5 to 10% every 2 weeks. That worked well for me.

 

Best,

 

Katz