Staggered taper of 2mg/day clonazepam

I have been taking 2mg a day of clonazepam for over 30 years. So 1mg twice a day, roughly 10 hours apart. I am hoping to taper this down to 0 , or at least down to 1mg a day if 0 is impossible. I understand that a constant level tapering is often better but this isn’t practical in terms of cutting up pills. My plan is as follows:

 

For the first 15 days: 1.75, 2, 2, 1.75, 2, 2, 1.75, 2, 2, 1.75, 2, 2, 1.75, 2, 2

 

(These are the totals for each day. This is roughly a 4% decrease. I would still be taking 1/2 of each number twice a day.)

 

The next 15 days: 1.75, 1.75, 2, 1.75, 1.75,  2, 1.75, 1.75, 2, 1.75, 1.75, 2, 1.75, 1.75,  2

 

The next 30 days I would be taking 1.75mg each day.

 

If all goes well I would  be at a constant daily dosage of 1.75mg after two months. I would then repeat the above steps getting down to 1.5mg after a further 15 days and then stay there for 30 days.

 

And so on, until I reach 1mg a day.

 

Has anyone tried something like this after being on the drug for a long time? Any suggestions? The one thing I have debated was the 30 day rest period staying on 1.75 then 1.5, etc... Perhaps that could be shorter.

 

The medication worked great for panic attacks. Am no longer in the situation which triggered those and I really don’t like taking pills, keeping track of them, getting prescriptions, and so on ...

 

I don’t have access to customized dosages so cutting the pills does restrict any tapering scheme. Am a bit reluctant to simply go from 2 a day to 1.75 a day. Seems more drastic than the staggered approach I outlined above.

 

Thanks for any info/suggestions.

 

 

I guess you're cutting an 1/8 of a pill?

 

I don't think it's a good way to go about it, to be honest. I understand why you wouldn't want to just move to 1.75mg and that is why you are thinking about staggering in the way that you are. If you can't get pills in a smaller dose, I would use a mg scale to measure out a smaller cut that will be more manageable. It's a bit of a pain but it doesn't have to be something you do daily. You could do the prep work on a weekly basis, readying your doses in advance. If you can get smaller dosed tablets, that would be better.

 

If you run into difficulties, it's harder to understand what has happened if you're staggering the doses like that. It can be confusing enough as it is without this complication. Ultimately, I think that even if you have some success for a little while, you will eventually need to change strategy. It's probably best to just get off on the right footing and sort that out now.

Yes, I am cutting 1/8 th of a pill. I am going to try to obtain lower dosage pills at the next renewal.

 

Is there a reason why staggering might be a risky approach? Less likely to work? When I first started the medication for panic attacks this was the way the researcher had me increase/decrease. Of course it’s now 30+ years later. Am just trying to avoid a serious complication from tapering.

You're sending mixed signals to an already confused central nervous system. You're going to have the ups and downs as it is. The best thing you can do to counter this is to be consistent with dosing.

Pstep,

 

Diaz is correct. You don’t want to decrease that way. You’re making it unnecessarily difficult.

 

Make your cut; stay with it; enjoy the benefits.

 

I’ve been on a similar track since October. It’s doable. I wish I had made smaller cuts. .125, or even .0625, rather than .25. Regardless, the staggered approach that you’re talking about is not ideal.

 

Good luck!

Just a note that I stopped the staggered approach. I am not sure if it was that or the covid pressures, but I basically went back to 2mg/day to calm down. By October I was determined to get off these and followed a paper which suggested .5 mg cut every two weeks until you got to 1.0 and then .25 every one or two weeks until the end. I got to 1.0 mg in a month, but it was too much so I went to 1.25, so .75mg in am and .5mg in pm. I am ok, not perfect there and I have been on that for 3 weeks. Am a bit nervous of my next step. .125 seems too much. I can reliably cut off 12.5 mg. So my plan is

 

Lower am by .125 for one or two weeks and then another .125 . That would get me to .5mg AM and .5 pm.

 

Stay there for a while, maybe a month.

 

Lowering by .125mg is feasible but smaller cuts are unreliable for me. Is there a supplement to help with some of the withdrawal symptoms? Mainly the ringing in the ears. Sleeping is fine.

 

GABA? Foods of some sort? I find going for walks helps.

 

This is much harder than I thought it would be. My doctor is supporting but he really doesn’t have any real suggestions.

 

Sorry for the lack of detail. Am just getting accustomed to 1.25 mg and a bit nervous moving lower.