? for Colin or anyone....

Right now I'm waiting for the 100 ml cylinder I ordered online to arrive and have decided on a glacially slow taper - 1/16 of a .5 mg pill (klonopin) every two weeks (I will go into more detail when I'm ready to start). In the meantime I have a question about combining dry cutting with liquid titration.

This may have already been covered and I missed it somehow but I've been wondering - is combining liquid titration with dry cutting an acceptable way to go about tapering? It seems like it would be a lot easier (when I get to that point) to take the .5 mg pill without crushing, mixing, etc. Also when I get to 1/2, 1/4 or even an 1/8 of a pill as I have no trouble splitting the pills into those doses. Then use titration for the smaller more difficult cuts. Is this something that sounds reasonable or doable?

 

Thanks,

Lynne

It seems like it would be a lot easier (when I get to that point) to take the .5 mg pill without crushing, mixing, etc. Also when I get to 1/2, 1/4 or even an 1/8 of a pill as I have no trouble splitting the pills into those doses. Then use titration for the smaller more difficult cuts. Is this something that sounds reasonable or doable?

 

Thanks,

Lynne

 

Absolutely! 

 

I don't know how you can cut an 1/8 of a pill though! I cut quarters for my taper and even those were hard, and never came out uniform. YOu might want to limit your dry cuts to 1/4 pills for more accuracy.

Compared with making 1ml reductions to 100ml of liquid with one whole tablet, pill-splitting is very inaccurate. However, if you can manage reasonably accurate cuts, and since longer acting benzos are more forgiving, you might be OK.

 

If you are looking to reduce your dose by a 16th of tablet every two weeks, simply reduce your dose by a total of 3ml (from 100ml) per week. Ideally, your would do this by making three single 1ml reductions over the week.

 

If you are doing this by using multiples of eighths of a tablet, then the method is quite different. For example, you take 7/8th of a tablet as you would normally, and titrate 1/8th of a tablet in 30ml of liquid. You would reduce the 30ml by 10ml (with the 1/8th tablet) in three stages over a two week period. Actually, it would look like this:

 

For 5 days 7/8 pill + 20ml (from 30ml using 1/8 tablet)

For 5 days 7/8 pill + 10ml (from 30ml using 1/8 tablet)

For 4 days 7/8 pill

For 5 days 3/4 pill + 20ml (from 30ml using 1/8 tablet)

For 5 days 3/4 pill + 10ml (from 30ml using 1/8 tablet)

For 4 days 3/4 pill

For 5 days 5/8 pill + 20ml (from 30ml using 1/8 tablet)

For 5 days 5/8 pill + 10ml (from 30ml using 1/8 tablet)

For 4 days 5/8 pill

For 5 days 1/2 pill + 20ml (from 30ml using 1/8 tablet)

And so on

 

I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve though. If you are short of pills, and cannot easily obtain more, then what you suggest makes sense. Otherwise, your method seems more complicated and less accurate - but it should still work. But at the end of the day, you should taper in the manner with which you feel most comfortable.

Thank you, eljay and Colin.

The 1/8 cuts are tricky and probably not all that accurate so I will most likely not do that after I begin titrating. I won't have a problem getting enough pills - just thought I could save myself some trouble. Since this is so new to me I have a lot of questions and uncertainty. I'd like the process to be as smooth as possible so reducing from 100 ml in 1 ml increments over the course of a couple of weeks sounds good to me.  In fact, anything that is less complicated and more accurate sounds good to me!

I will post later with more info about my proposed taper plan.

 

Lynne

Just to be clear, if you titrate the whole pill, you would reduce your dose by a total of 3ml per week (in three 1ml reductions from 100ml) to equate to a reduction of 1/16th of dose every 14 days.

Colin,

Yes, that's my understanding of the process - thanks for double checking.

 

However, since I'm currently taking 1 1/8 pills and not able to cut the 1/8 very accurately I had the idea to cut 1 pill into quarters and titrate 1/4 then drink half of that along with taking the 1 pill (without crushing or titrating). Does that make sense? I'd like to be as accurate as possible as it seems every little variation in dosage comes with annoying and distressing effects.

 

I hope to begin the taper in a week or so but am waiting for my cylinder to arrive.

 

Lynne

Hi,

 

Yes, what you propose makes sense. We regularly advise similarly.