Water Titration for Ativan

Hi all,I would like to find some information regarding comming off Ativan 3.5 - 4mgs daily from 11 months of use, through using the Tritation method,what does this entail & what incriments would be viable & how long on average would this take?Any suggestion would be much appreciated.Thankyou.

I didn't taper ativan, but what people do is pre-dissolve the ativan in a small amount of alcohol, then add the water to make up most of the liquid.  This gets it to go into solution and it seems to work well.

 

For a daily taper from 3.75mg I'd probably be comfortable beginning by removing .003mg per day as a starting point.  You can probably go faster, but it is best to start slow.

Thanks SG57 for your quick reply, what would be the recommended amount of liquid to use for the tritation method?say to dissolve 3.75mg Ativan,would it be best to to use a standard amount of liquid say 10mls or 20mls right through the reduction process until I got down to zero drug? So from what you suggest here is to reduce around 10% I think & maybe do this every 10 to 14 days. I may end up adding more alcohol than water by the end.

It depends on your pill sizes and number of doses, what size syringes you choose, how many pills you want to dissolve.  But I'd use more than 10 or 20ml.  For example, if I was dissolving a .5mg pill I'd probably put it in 50ml.  I'd pre-dissolve it in maybe 3ml of Everclear 150 for a while, then add 47 ml water to top it up to 50ml and mix well.  You can cut any way you want, but I'd make tiny daily cuts if it were me, always following symptoms and not allowing them to increase, holding when needed to stay feeling good.  A .003mg cut would be .1ml.

Thanks SG57 for your reply. The pill size for the Ativan I'm on is a 2.5mg tablet,I take one in the mornings & 1/2 at nights. What may I ask is Everclear 150??

Oh sorry, it's 151 proof grain alcohol.

Oh,ok thanks SG57,never heard of it,I'm in Sydney,Australia so will try & find something similar,if not the same.

I'm presently tapering off ativan as well.

 

My doctor phoned the pharmacist and asked them to make a liquid suspension for me.  In my case, it will be a 30 ml supply, which is the same as a bottle of 30, 1 mg pills.  They are also supplying a syringe with .1 mg increments for tapering. 

 

Maybe you could ask your doc for the same thing.

Thankyou Keepingfaith,that sounds like a great idea & way,I will contact my Dr & let him know,he is reluctant to do any tapers,but I know my body better than any Dr & that is what is needed,Ativan is slowly causing my mind to 'block',like I can't get words out sometimes,very frustrating,also causing repeated words or sentences which I have never experienced prior to this drug & to top it off,it's starting to give my suicidal thoughts,which I don't want.So yes I will endevour to try what you have suggested.Thanks & best of luck with your own taperering.

You could always ask him for the suspension in the context of taking your "regular" dose (wink wink).  For him, it would be like renewing your script, only in liquid form.

Yes very true,thanks again.