Liquid titration for clonazepam

Hi everyone.

I'm taking 0.5mg of clonazepam in the morning and early evening along with 100mg of Zoloft daily. I've been taking the benzo for 5 years at this dose.

I would like to taper off, and I saw a YouTube video that discusses a 300 day liquid titration approach.

-Is water okay for clonazepam?

-Can I shorten the taper period? For example, start at 150 ml of water.

-should I do morning and night doses at the same time, or start with morning and then start night once I get into the flow?

-should I worry about liquid that adheres to the lid of the jar?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks in advance! 

Klonopin isn't soluble in water.  Most people will soak/dissolve a pill in a couple ml of alcohol (e.g. vodka) for several minutes, then dilute with water, mix well, and drink.  Propylene glycol can be used in place of alcohol.

You can make the taper period anything you want, but be willing to adjust the rate if withdrawal symptoms get nasty.

No reason to change your dosing schedule.  Morning and evening are fine.

The amount on the jar is just a drop or two.  I'd probably tap it on the counter lightly to knock the bigger ones down, but not worry about the rest.  Being consistent is more important than being perfect.

Thanks a lot for the reply!

I didn't know about needing to dissolve in alcohol.

Forgive my ignorance, but I'm quite sensitive to alcohol and it seems like it's best to avoid while on SSRI/benzo. Does it end up being a negligible amount of alcohol? Can I use Almond milk?

So I dissolve the pill in alcohol, etc. and then add water until I reach the desired volume (300 ml etc.)?

Much as I enjoy almond milk, it won't work any better than water for klonopin.

You only need a small amount of alcohol to dissolve the medicine in the pill.  2-3 ml is sufficient (about 1/10th of a shot).  After it's dissolved in alcohol, you add the water, mix well, and drink what you're going to drink.  Alternatively, one can use propylene glycol or one of the pharmaceutical oral suspension vehicles (e.g. Ora-Plus) instead of alcohol.

Thanks again for your advice. Can you tell me what will happen if one tries to dissolve a pill in just water? I put one pill in a jar of water and shook it up and it dissolved just fine. Is the problem that it is not an even suspension?

Even 1/10th a shot sounds too much to me and I don't have access to the other products you mentioned. Perhaps I should pursue a dry taper.

The starch (or whatever) the company puts into the pill as a filler will dissolve in water.  99% of the pill is fillers.  The drug isn't very soluble in water.

I use this study as the source for solubility information...  https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc674044/m2/1/high_res_d/Acree%20Pub-479.pdf

It's not even all that soluble in 80-proof vodka, but it's soluble enough to work.

Sounds like you want to try water anyway. 

Thanks again for your advice. Can you tell me what will happen if one tries to dissolve a pill in just water? I put one pill in a jar of water and shook it up and it dissolved just fine. Is the problem that it is not an even suspension?

 

Even 1/10th a shot sounds too much to me and I don't have access to the other products you mentioned. Perhaps I should pursue a dry taper.

Badsocref is right on target with great answers and guidance for you. Just remember, the goal of all of this isn't just to get off the drug, but to get off the drug and be healthy. Going too fast doesn't help anything, it just makes for a long and tough post-taper (protracted withdrawals). Also, in my liquid doses, I put my 1mg k tablet in 2 mL of vodka, let dissolve, and then add 98 mL water. I'm mega sensitive to alcohol (or anything at all, for that matter) and it hasn't fazed me during my long taper. Be consistent with whatever you do, do the taper based on your symptoms (not on what a spreadsheet or program says), and live everyday as "normal" as possible without getting too "caught up" in the whole process. You'll do great!! 

Hello CloudCircus,

Just offering you more options.

Have you asked your prescriber about a prescription for a professionally compounded oral suspension of clonazepam?

Have you considered using whole fat, homogenized milk?  Here’s a video:

P.S.  Whatever you decide, might I encourage you to create a flexible, individualized taper plan rather than relying on plans (e.g. the spreadsheet included with the above video) generated by others.  Each of us must determine via experimentation what taper rate and reduction interval works for us given our unique physiology, the properties of the benzodiazepine we are tapering, current and past drug use, our response to reductions, etc.  Taper plans are “living documents” - they must be monitored and adjusted on a regular basis for the duration of the taper.

Pamster

CloudCircus,

I'm also doing a lot of research.  I am starting with a dry taper using a milligram scale, reduction of 5 or 10% every 14 days or so, to be determined, but may switch to the liquid method as I get down to say, .125mg. (starting taper on 1 mg of Klonopin)

I just watched the video that Pamster just referenced; 

What I liked about this method, is it is milk, seems relatively simple and you can copy the spreadsheet as it provides instructions, on the example spreadsheet.

Even though the video is a few years old, the spreadsheet still works perfectly when you add the current date, and then the other details.

I hope other folks here at BB with more experience will comment on this video\method as well!