25mg Libirum Capsules and Tapering Questions

          ----Quick story.  If you want to skip it and just help me with my question go right to paragraph 2.----

I have been on Benzos way to long.  Not for anxiety, but for a head injury and brought on a series of seizures. So I was on Klonopin to start, but I became dependent extremely quickly and had bad withdrawals,  the doctor told me it was the head injury and it couldn't be related to the Klonopin, so I went to ativan, then to Valium. Long story short 4 years later I finally got a doctor that knows my Brain is fine (Spect and MRI scan) and that my problem with seizures was temporary and I am now sick only because of the benzos. The guy is awesome and it totally willing to work with me.  He started me out on 100mg of Librium. 

 

I have tapered myself down to 68 Milligrams by cutting out 1 milligram per week I think I was going 1 MG every 4 days for a while, then started to ease back a little.  All the usual stuff,  Night Terrors, Blurred vision, heart racing, sleeping as little as 3 hours per night at times.  Then some days I almost feel normal.  But the thing is, If I hold or a I cut does not seem to determine how I am going to feel.  I have held once for a long time,  only to feel more sick with each week,  so I just went ahead and cut,  and then I felt better for like an entire week.  So holding does not seem to bring me stability.  Which leads me to my deeper questions , concerns, and issues with Librium.

 

Librium is not commonly used anymore,Some Rehabs still use it for 4 or 5 days, then they taper you out of it fast.  Other than that,  its pretty uncommon so there is not a lot of info out there regarding long term use of Benzos and coming off them with Librium. Librium also does not work quite like other medications in the same class, its got a huge variety of other drugs it breaks down into , all having a different half life. Also as far as I know it is the only Benzo that does not come in a pill but a capsule.  So there is no shaving off bits or cutting the pill into quarters as a means to taper.  Which is why it made sense to me to liquid taper at 1mg per week.  Which is slower than Ashtons recommended 2.5 mg every 2 weeks.  Which is actually impossible because the smallest dose is a 5mg Capsule.

 

If you read the FDA material online it says Librium is unstable when exposed to light, and also unstable in a solution. What does that mean?  does that mean the exposure keeps the drug from working?  Yet, they state it is Water Soluble. So I have been opening my 25mg capsule in the light, mixing it with 25ml of water, shaking well, then removing 1Ml of water per week.

 

All was going pretty smooth from 100 to 75.  What I guess I am wondering is if anyone has had any experience or any deeper insight into Librium.  I may very well be dropping 25MG doses at a time if the stuff gets ruined when exposed to light.  Does anyone have any first hand experience with coming off Librium or know of what happens to it when exposed to light and water?  Because If I can not taper this with Water then I am going to need him to write me some smaller doses like 5s and 10s and try and taper from those doses.  Ashton says to drop by 2.5mg  But that is not possible as there is no 2.5mg dose, and the medication only comes in a capsule.  Any insight on someone who has used Librium to taper would be extremely welcome and appreciated. 

 

Currently at 68Mg of Librium unless the light and water are ruining it,  then I am probably at 50mg dropped right from 75.

There is some useful information in this members progress log, I'll send a message to her, she may agree to stop by.  http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=137858.0

As Pamster said, I have Librium info on my p-log, linked in my signature below.

 

About instability, what happens in water is Librium begins to break down into its metabolites. It is not instant. I let my solution sit for 24 hours with no ill effects. I think it's the same for light. It starts to break down in light but it is not instant. I kept my solution in a clear jar but kept the jar in a dark place just to be safe.

 

There is disagreement in the literature as to just how much Librium will dissolve in how much water. There was a discussion about this between a couple of chemistry geeks on the DLMT thread many years ago. They came to the conclusion that it would be safer to dissolve the L in a small amount of alcohol first and then dilute with water. How I did that is on my p-log.

 

Hope this helped. If you have questions, you can ask me here. I'm a little busy getting ready to move, but I still check in.