Dry Daily Titrate Clonazapam w/ Cheap Scale; is it worth it VS liquid?

I'm currently doing a cut and hold taper starting with 3.75x 0.5mg clonazapam pills/day. I have a pill cutter and I get pretty uneven pieces and just hope for the best. Since I'm starting with just a quarter pill reduction, it's not a big deal, but eventually all of my doses will be fractions of pills and I'm worried I might feel like a yo-yo.

 

So I'm considering weighing my tablets, and fussing with them to get even doses, and it occurs to me that I might be inches away from just doing a daily micro titration at that point. Is daily titrations worth the hassle? I saw some of the video Pamster posted with the nail file and the cheap milligram scale and weights and it looked fiddly but doable, especially if I can fill up a pill organizer with a week or more ahead of time.

 

Right now I'm trying a 6.7%/2 week cut and hold. If my spreadsheet is to be believed, if I switched to dry daily titration, I'd be shaving off 0.5% of the previous day's dose, every day. Is that how people do it?

 

I guess I'd start by weighting my full dose (3.75x 0.5mg pills). Then for each daily reduction I'll weight the pills for the day, then shave one or two until the total weight is at the number referenced on my spreadsheet (thinking to only reduce the AM doses at first). Do this a bunch of times and then store them in a monthly pill organizer.

 

Okay, finally, the question that probably can't be answered except by me: is this worth the trouble over liquid compounding? If I can afford it, is it easier just to get it compounded into a liquid and do daily micro titrations that way? I'm trying to consider all the trouble of ordering compounding vs the trouble of using a cheap scale to weight my tablets... And I've never done neither.

 

Thank you for your thoughts! Sorry for the long post. I appreciate any feedback! 

I think it could work either way you describe.  Also, some people choose to do a liquid taper at home.  You don't have to get it compounded.  It sounds as if you are pretty comfortable with how you are doing it on the scale, so maybe that is already working well for you.  Good luck with whatever you decide.  :smitten:

slownsteady,

 

I have some advice based on history.

 

While you are on a large dose, you do not need to be concerned with micro accuracy. 

 

When I was on 0.5mg cloazapam/Klonopin, I was able to get by with just a pill splitter and eye ball the reductions.

 

Only when you get down to about 0.125 mg do you need to worry about exact measurements.

 

Save yourself the trouble and for now use a pill splitter and reduce about 1/8 of a pill every 2 weeks or so.  Do not worry if the pill splits uneven.  Your dose is so high, it will be lost in the noise.

 

When you get near the end of your taper (at a lower dose), you can do the more accurate methods.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Bob7 and GreenCup!

 

I don't yet have a scale, so I think I'll take Bob7's advice and try to weather the uneven cut and holds as long as I'm able. I'm hoping I can always hold if it gets too much and then change my plan at that time. I was never a slow and steady kind of person, but I can see that I will need to be to survive this... 

Wonderful advice and it looks like you've made a decision which in itself is good because indecision causes stress and stress causes increased symptoms. 

 

I had to laugh at your statement about slow and steady, I'm an all or nothing kind of person, hence all of my cold turkey's.