Lorazepam (Ativan) taper, switching to multiple doses

Hey guys, I'm currently in the process of attempting a taper off of 1mg/day of lorazepam (Ativan) . Up to now, I've just been taking it once/day at night (due to trouble sleeping) more or less for last 2.5 months. I do have a few questions if someone could please help provide some insight:

 

- It seems that with these direct tapers of short-life benzos like lorazepam that most people have had the most success with multiple doses a day. Is this generally true? Would it be advisable of me to switch to multiple?

 

- Since I take 1mg/day, would I then split it to 0.5mg/2x a day?

 

I tried to search around the forum but similar threads and apologize if this has been asked elsewhere. The way I've been trying to taper before coming to this forum has been unsuccessful (too high of jumps between lower doses) and I'm trying to make it through this withdrawal without losing my mind

 

Thank you all in advanced!

Hi denz,

Yes I would recommend splitting into at least 3 doses a day.  I'm tapering lorazepam and I use 3 even doses spread over the day.  Minimizes interdose wd once your body adjusts.

 

Good luck!

If you have no issues or I/D withdrawals with 1X per day, then I would not personally switch it.  If you are having trouble with tapering, maybe get an exact knife or file your pill down and weigh the pill?  I wouldn't recommend going to 3X per day if your body is used to 1X per day and you aren't having I/D withdrawals - you haven't been on that long.  Maybe you just need smaller, more frequent cuts.  Spreading out the dose, if your body doesn't need it, will just complicate things.....

My experience, tapering a short half-life benzo, is that multiple even doses is essential. You could always try to switch to 2 doses to see if that helps. If not, you could switch back.

I split my Ativan into 5 daily does for a while before I crossed over to Valium. Made a lot of difference in reducing the interdose withdrawal stuff!

When I was taking Ativan I split it into 3 doses a day. It helped interdose w/ds.

 

Katz