Compounded Liquid Clonazepam Taper Options, What's Best

I'm very nervous about starting the liquid Clonazepam. My GP prescribed it through a compounding pharmacy. It is .375MG/10mL in concentration so I'll begin by taking 10 mL a day, which is supposed to be equivalent to the .125 MG morning and .25 MG evening I'm currently taking in tablet form.

 

My questions are:

 

1) When I move over to the compounded liquid Clonazepam, do I do so with the liquid equivalency of the way I'm currently taking the tablets, which would be 3.3 mL morning and 6.7 mL evening; or do I split the 10 mL dosage evenly and take 5 mL morning and 5 mL evening?

 

2) When I go to reduce my dosage, do I reduce my morning dosage and continue to do so weekly until I've discontinued the morning, then move to the evening and do the same; or do I reduce both the morning and the evening each time I do a reduction, i.e. I do a 10% reduction of the daily dose and administer half of that to the morning and half to the evening?

 

Thank you

1)  .375mg is .375mg, whether its tablets or compounded liquid.

 

2) Because of its long half-life, it really isn't very important to balance doses.  (Many folks do just fine on 1 dose/day)  If it were me, I would taper from the largest dose until your at .125 and .125.  Then I would alternate my cuts every week or so.

I thought about that, in regard to alternating my reductions, by cutting the morning one week, then cutting the evening the next week. I noticed though, in all the Ashton Manual tables they don't do alternating cuts. I take my evening dose at bedtime and I'm wondering if doing the alternating cuts would impact my sleep more as I'd be doing larger cuts to the evening dose by alternating than if divided the 10% reduction between the two doses. The compounding pharmacist thinks I should do my reductions to both, and of course he thinks that when I start using the liquid Clonazepam that I should take the total daily amount of 10 mL and simply split it and take 5 mL in the morning and 5 mL in the evening, which it sounds like most people agree with that even split.

 

Deciding between evening splitting the reductions between the two, or alternating between them, or reducing one down to elimination then reducing the other down to elimination. Doing the later would seem to emulate how they line it out in the Ashton Manual tables. However, the Ashton Manual tables are based off of tablets and I have to wonder if they would be reducing both the morning and evening if they were dealing with liquid. I haven't seen examples of Ashton Manual tables for tapering a liquid benzo.

Again, because of K's long half-life, how doses are divided/scheduled really isn't important.  My suggestion was what seems most logical and easy. 

 

But however you decide, it will really won't make much difference in the outcome.

Hi Khaotic, I'm exactly in the same bote as you are. After a tedious 1 1/2 months of tapering from 1MG of K (0.5 night/day) and after holding for a month due to surgery and traveling, I am  now at 0.375 MG . To do a slow taper tried to cut less than a 1/4 of 0.5 MG pill is being imposible for me. So I think liquid is the only manageable way. Besides I started to feel some symptoms. Don't know if it is because I tapered  too fast or the fact that the cuts are not that precise. So, I want to be really careful. One of my issues is if opt for a mix of liquid and dry cut for a while or just go direct to liquid.

I already have a compound Pharmacy that will do the liquid form for me. The solution they would use is Almond oil. 

Questions:

1-Do you know what type of solution are they using to dissolve the drug in your case?

2-Are you using the Liquid Pdf for doses calculations  available on Benzo Buddies to calculate the doses or are you doing it yourself.

3-Did your Dr talk to the Pharmacist to give details of what you need?

I have more questions but I would be really grateful if you could share your experiences. Both of us have a very similar cases.

Thanks 

 

 

I was told that a liquid dose reacts different than a dry dose because it works faster since it doesn't have to go through the digestions process, so it might feel different.  I guess it's something you get used to???

I was told that a liquid dose reacts different than a dry dose because it works faster since it doesn't have to go through the digestions process, so it might feel different.  I guess it's something you get used to???

 

Just FYI, there is absolutely no medical, pharmacological, or scientific logic to support that.  Once your tablet hits your stomach, its liquid within seconds anyway.

 

And FWIW, in the old Benzo Detox Recovery board, where all members were doing some  kind of liquid taper, no one ever reported noticing any difference when switching to liquid.

I was told that a liquid dose reacts different than a dry dose because it works faster since it doesn't have to go through the digestions process, so it might feel different.  I guess it's something you get used to???

 

Just FYI, there is absolutely no medical, pharmacological, or scientific logic to support that.  Once your tablet hits your stomach, its liquid within seconds anyway.

 

And FWIW, in the old Benzo Detox Recovery board, where all members were doing some  kind of liquid taper, no one ever reported noticing any difference when switching to liquid.

 

Is it possible to get a compounded capsule?