Question about pills vs liquid/suspension

Recently I took some clonazepam (Rivotril) drops, made by the manufacturer. I needed to figure out if it was in any way better for tapering.

Personally I 'm in a very difficult relationship with this drug, a rather harsh effect/side effect profile and I'm rather sensitive. By now plainly sick.

A cut from what I posted in the Klonopin thread:  (liquid being absorped faster, having a different effect, acting shorter, just acting different throughout the day) Not tapering at the moment.

'Two days on the liquid. Yesterday only the pill. That was different.

Today, I tried the 2 mg pill plus 0.2 mg (2 drops). No, the difference was not the dose.

I did feel some sedation (different than 'normal'), a strong mood lift, and it just felt very different.'

I wonder if not many people who do their own liquid titration are dealing with something similar. Pill versus liquid/suspension.

Anyone ? I doubt if it really matters if you get the stuff made by the manufacturer, or if you make it yourself.

Experiences ?

Some people do report feeling a difference when they switch from straight tablets to a liquid method. That's why it's often suggested you either do a very small updose or hold your dose for a while until your body adjusts. At the end of the day though it shouldn't make any difference how the benzo is administered (either pill, pharma grade liquid or home made liquid) once you become used to that method.

IMO liquid is a much better way to taper because if you use a diluted liquid and a syringe you can cut very small amounts every day and that should make the overall tapering experience a lot easier to handle. You can still dose as many times a day as you need to.

I take my dose as a single dose of mg in the evening.

On a different forum it has been suggested that I should split my dose.

I have never been able to do so in the past, for various reasons.

If I were to take two daily doses, that would be a 50 % cut in my dose !

So someone suggested that I gradually decrease my evening dose and take an earlier dose, all very gradually.

Is something like this commonly done ?

If it were possible at all, it would take months !

I don't understand what you mean by splitting your dose being a 50% cut. You would still be taking the same amount over a 24 hour period. All you are doing is cutting the dose in half and taking one half at a different time. Clonazepam has a fairly long half life, so it should be fairly forgiving. I can understand that it could be a problem if you made a sudden change, but that's why you would do it gradually to get your body used to it by moving the two doses further apart a little each day. It wouldn't need to take months though, maybe a few weeks of moving it perhaps 30 minutes a day.

Anyway, there's no rule about how many times you should dose per day. A lot of people dose multiple times, but a lot of people only dose once. So unless dosing once a day is a problem for you, I would be reluctant to change it.... if it ain't broke don't fix it. However, if single dosing is a problem you won't know if two doses will help unless you try, but you do need to be patient during the change over. You should never do anything suddenly with benzos.

'I don't understand what you mean by splitting your dose being a 50% cut.'

True, but it would be a 50 % cut in the evening dose !

It's not as if only blood plasma levels are relevant. Not to me, anyway.

In the past I got strong and acute reaction to dose cuts. But then, at this point I'm hypersensitive/supersensitive/oversensitive (?) to this drug.

And again, there is the very relevant concept of 'duration of action'. Clonazepam has the longest duration of action of all benzos. 'Duration of action' is NOT 'half life'. Too bad Ashton doesn't discuss this.

Indeed, I would rather not switch to dosing multiple times a day ... but I have learned that the drops version seems to act faster, shorter, the onset tends to be more powerful, and it seems to work different.

Clonazepam does seem to act shorter after that lorazepam disaster.

But then, it seems I am hypersensitive to the drug.

'I don't understand what you mean by splitting your dose being a 50% cut.'

 

True, but it would be a 50 % cut in the evening dose !

It's not as if only blood plasma levels are relevant. Not to me, anyway.

If you followed the gradual change over process you would split your evening dose in half and take one half of it about 30 minutes before you take the other half at your normal time. Then the next day you would take that half dose 60 minutes before. Next day 90 minutes before, and so on, so that your body gradually gets used the the change in dosing times. However, as I've said above, not everyone needs or wants to dose more than once a day. This is just how I would do it if I wanted to change my dosings.

In the past I got strong and acute reaction to dose cuts. But then, at this point I'm hypersensitive/supersensitive/oversensitive (?) to this drug.

 

And again, there is the very relevant concept of 'duration of action'. Clonazepam has the longest duration of action of all benzos. 'Duration of action' is NOT 'half life'. Too bad Ashton doesn't discuss this.

 

Indeed, I would rather not switch to dosing multiple times a day ... but I have learned that the drops version seems to act faster, shorter, the onset tends to be more powerful, and it seems to work different.

Clonazepam does seem to act shorter after that lorazepam disaster.

But then, it seems I am hypersensitive to the drug.

I honestly don't know if you are more sensitive to benzos than the general membership of BB. I think we are all very sensitive. I don't know enough about your history to comment, and there's not much in your signature to go by. I think that how people react to the cuts is influenced by how they're doing them. If you've had acute reactions to cuts maybe you have cut too much or too fast. idk.....

Ultimately, whatever you end up doing, you have to give your body time to adjust to any changes in doses, deliver of medication etc.