Titration schedule request for arteacher

Hi Colin,

I have been on Lorazepam for six months, starting at 2mg and have tapered down to 0.125 mg before bed. I have had worsening insomnia at this low dose. I tried three days ago to go off completely and by the third day could not get to sleep at all for 2 nights. From what I've read, titration sounds like the way to go.

Here is my info:

Start date: August 3rd

Dose: 0.125 mg

Tablet dose: 0.5 mg

Number of tablets: 0.25 tablet in the evening

Taper rate: 1% per day

Cylinder details:100 ml with 1 ml increments

Thank you so much!

Hi arteacher,

I'm sure Colin will be stopping by soon, it looks as if you've supplied all of the pertinent information.  Hang in there, I know it's tough to go without sleep. 

Pam

Thanks so much, Pam. I had no idea when I was prescribed Lorazepam for insomnia that it would actually end up causing more of it. It's so great to find a resource like this and to hear that so many other people are in the same boat. I'm just glad I found it because I had no idea how I was going to get off the last dose. Who knew that 0.125 mg could be so hard to quit.

Shelli

Hi Shelli,

Feel free to start a thread in the Welcome board or start a blog if you feel you'd like some support from other forum members.

We're happy to see you here and would love to help you if we can.

Pam

Hi,

It's very late here in UK - I'll reply properly tomorrow.

Hi,

Sorry, I've been busy. I will look at this tomorrow. Feel free to PM a reminder!

Thanks so much, Colin. I completely understand. I appreciate you giving your time to do this at all!

Shelli

Hi,

Having had a look at your details, you really do not need a full titration plan. If you were on a single tablet per day (0.5mg), a 1% taper plan would be really quite slow for such a dose. Since you are on just a quarter of this dose - 0.125mg - (equivalent to 25ml from 100ml of liquid made with one whole crushed 0.5mg pill), you should make up a liquid of 100ml, and start by drinking just 24ml on day1. On day2, you should drink 23ml. Day3, drink 22ml. Keep the liquid in the fridge, but don't keep it for more than three days. Now, on day4, make up a fresh batch, again 100ml with a whole crushed 0.5ml pill, but drink just 21ml; on day5, drink 20ml. Keep doing this, making a fresh batch every three days. Of course, this will take you 24 days to complete.

Thank you so much. 24 days sounds great...much shorter than I had anticipated! It's totally worth it to do this the right way. Thanks again!

Shelli