Klonopin Taper Plan

Hello. I posted this info in introduction and am looking for feedback on a good taper plan.

 

8/24/20 for 0.5 mg at night for sleep

Upped to 0.25 mg 3x a day on 9/18/2020.

Told my doctor I was stopping on 10/5/20 and he said was a good idea. (dumb)

About 1.5 to 2 weeks later or so I started feeling withdrawal symptoms (higher anxiety, shaking, etc.).

10/20/2020 I went back to taking 0.5 mg per day with a 1/2 dose per week taper plan (too quick believe me I know)

 

As of 11/22 I am on 0.125 mg per day (lingering jitteriness and pins/needles in hands and feet intermittently...hope phases out.)

Based on feedback plan to stay on 0.125 for ideally a couple of weeks to hopefully stabilize then want to pursue a 10% taper plan say for example starting on 12/7/20.

 

Currently dry cutting 0.5 mg tablet. I Do not have access to liquid klonopin and likely no luck with doctor to get the 0.125 soft tab.

 

I am interested in a liquid taper plan ideas as trying to shave/cut 0.5 mg table as noted impossible. Trying to understand the calculations for 10% taper. Looking at the milk, 100ml cylinder and a syringe method to remove amount not to be used or use to take amount needed. I also read about the tablespoon removal method. Not sure of best approach or another recommended method. Welcome feedback.

 

 

Thanks

Hi!

 

The first step will be to get stable on liquid instead of solid klonopin.  A lot of people feel that the bioavailability of liquid formulations is somewhat less than pills.  So switching to 0.125 mg in milk might feel like a reduction.  If you let pills dissolve in your mouth (sublingual absorption), the difference in absorption (versus liquid) will be even greater.  So you may end up increasing your dose slightly to compensate for the switch.  Just something to keep in mind.

 

The taper itself is pretty easy to calculate.  A 10% reduction means you'll take 90% of your most recent dose.  So if you dissolve 1/4 of a 0.5 mg pill in 100 ml of milk, a 10% reduction means you'll discard 10 ml and drink 90 ml.  For the next cut, you'd multiply 0.9 times your most recent dose (90 ml).  That gives 81 ml (you'd discard 19 ml).  Next cut would be 0.9 times 81 ml = 73 ml.

 

You can, instead, remove something like 0.5 to 1.0 ml per day from your batch before you drink it.  That avoids the big (10%) drop days.  A tablespoon is ~15 ml - probably too big a reduction if you make 100 ml.

 

Hope this helps.

Hi!

 

The first step will be to get stable on liquid instead of solid klonopin.  A lot of people feel that the bioavailability of liquid formulations is somewhat less than pills.  So switching to 0.125 mg in milk might feel like a reduction.  If you let pills dissolve in your mouth (sublingual absorption), the difference in absorption (versus liquid) will be even greater.  So you may end up increasing your dose slightly to compensate for the switch.  Just something to keep in mind.

 

The taper itself is pretty easy to calculate.  A 10% reduction means you'll take 90% of your most recent dose.  So if you dissolve 1/4 of a 0.5 mg pill in 100 ml of milk, a 10% reduction means you'll discard 10 ml and drink 90 ml.  For the next cut, you'd multiply 0.9 times your most recent dose (90 ml).  That gives 81 ml (you'd discard 19 ml).  Next cut would be 0.9 times 81 ml = 73 ml.

 

You can, instead, remove something like 0.5 to 1.0 ml per day from your batch before you drink it.  That avoids the big (10%) drop days.  A tablespoon is ~15 ml - probably too big a reduction if you make 100 ml.

 

Hope this helps.

 

badsocref thank you for the reply and the calculations. I do like the graduated approach of 0.5 to 1.0 ml per day if tolerated. A couple of further questions if I may. Does it have to be a specific type of milk (i.e. I drink almond milk) or can water suffice. The only other concern I have is the dissolving of the tablet how are you sure you are getting the full dosage and not leaving residual medication in the container?

 

Thanks,

 

seekingtoheal

Whole milk.  You need the milk fat to solubilize the klonopin.  If you want to use water, you need to solubilize the pill in a small amount of alcohol (or propylene glycol) first.  I don't know about using nut milks, but if you do, I'd try nut milks that are high in fat such as walnut milk, hazelnut milk, or peanut milk.  You'll have to read some product labels and ensure there's at least as much fat in the nut milk as is in whole cow's milk.

 

Mix really really well.  Crush the pill before adding it to the milk.

badsocref thank you. Did a bit more research and wanted to get feedback from you and others on this daily plan. Starting point is hopefully where I am at now....0.125 mg Klonopin

 

1. Pill split 0.5 tablet into 4ths, i.e. 0.125 mg split pieces

2. Take 0.125 mg split piece and put into a baby food jar

3. Crush up in jar with spoon edge, knife edge, etc.

4. Fill up 100ml cylinder with whole full fat milk

5. Pour milk into baby jar

6. Let solution sit in jar for about 10 minutes

7. Stir up or swish jar to ensure further mix

8. Extract 1ml of milk from jar using a syringe and discard

9. Drink i.e. first day 99 ml of milk from jar...after add more water/milk to ensure get residue

10. Repeat following day with a 1 ml decrement

 

basically/hopefully a 100 day taper plan

 

thanks,

 

seekingtoheal

 

 

 

 

 

I'd combine steps 6 & 7.  Let the pill dissolve for 10 minutes with occasional mixing.

 

Quartering the pills by eye will introduce a little variability.  You might want to weight out the quarter pieces.

 

A ml a day seems a decent place to start.  Be willing to adjust the rate as your symptoms demand.  We don't want you bed-ridden because you tried to stay on schedule.

Thank you. You bring up a good point. Even though I am using a pill cutter to quarter the 0.5 mg tablet that the cuts are not exact. If I buy a scale then I might just cut and weigh with the scale and do % decrement based on weight.

 

Thx

That works too.  A lot of people buy a Gem-20 (gemini-20) scale from Amazon.  It does a pretty good job for the price.

Thank you and appreciate your feedback. My thoughts are 0.125 as the taper starting point (hopefully). Once I get the scale I will weight the full 0.5 tablet to get a base weight. Then determine weight of 0.25 and 0.125 dosage. Once I determine the weight of 0.125 then start a 5-10% taper plan every 2 weeks. Noting your feedback for 10% big drop days I would say for example reduce via the dry taper 0.001 each day.

 

So for example:

 

day 1:  0.125

day 2:  0.124

day 3:  0.123

Yep - you can do that.  There are a lot of sane ways to do a taper.  Just be willing to adjust the taper speed as needed.