Tapperin of Lorazipam?....

[[St...]]

Hello, i have a Question..I am on .o5 mgs of Lorazipam(once daily-morning), and have been on that dose for about a year..Before that, i was taking care of my Father who had Dementia and was up to .05 (3xs a day),for about another year...My Dr. wants me off the Benzo. I also take 10 mgs at night of Citalopram and the Benzo seems to work off the Celexa. My Dr. has just put me on 15 mgs of Buspirone(buspar),split 1x with Breakfast & 1 x with Dinner.I`m just finishing week one of the Buspar.Only side effects i have is excitable anxiety really. I hope this stuff gets in my system soon. My question is,my Dr. gave me 15 x.o5 lorazipam pills to take every other day for a months time until finished . I dont really like that idea,so im thinking of going down to half the dosage for three weeks and then every other day till they run out (2 weeks). Any body have any advice on any of this?..Thank you so much and have a Happy Holiday!

[[Ch...]]

I'm assuming the pills are .5mg Lorazepam, not .05, since Lorazepam doesn't come in such a minute dose.  Lorazepam leaves the system in a matter of hours, so dosing every other day is most likely going to really throw your body into confusion in my opinion. 

 

It would be best if your doctor would agree to prescribe long enough to get you through a slower taper.  If I were tapering .5mg of Lorazepam after a year of use, I'd want to only cut a small amount at first to see how it went.  I'd probably start by breaking the tablet in fourths and taking one of the fourths and breaking it in half.  That's a 1/8th reduction.

 

If your doctor truly will not prescribe the Lorazepam any more than the 15 he's given you, personally, I'd probably try cutting 1/4th of a tablet off the dose and see how that went before I made any more cuts.

 

[[St...]]

Hi Challis.I think i will do the cutting in half and then cutting that in another half and taking the Three halfs instead of JUST half of the ".5" Lorazipam...I will get a hold of my Dr. and see is shes willing to give me another 15 to get threw the Tappering off(does have me a little worried)..Thanks for caring enough to respond,Be well,Mark

[[Ch...]]

Hi Challis.I think i will do the cutting in half and then cutting that in another half and taking the Three halfs instead of JUST half of the ".5" Lorazipam...I will get a hold of my Dr. and see is shes willing to give me another 15 to get threw the Tappering off(does have me a little worried)..Thanks for caring enough to respond,Be well,Mark

 

One good thing about tapering a fast acting benzo is that you can correct the dose pretty quick if you begin to get some nasty withdrawal symptoms. 

 

You could tell your doctor you'd like to follow the Ashton Manual method of tapering... some people print parts of the manual for their doctors to read.  Here's the link for you:  Ashton Manual

Take care, 

[[St...]]

AWESOME! thx 

[[ke...]]

I'm tapering off of .5 lorazepam also.  I would cut the dose in half rather than take every other day at this point.  You could always try the every other day on the .25.

 

The other thing is that I'm not a fan of the Ashton method unless you are having a terrible time tapering, and/or your anxiety issues aren't under control with other meds (which yours are.) 

 

 

[[St...]]

KeepingFaith..Thank you ,i think thats what i want to do its cut the .5 in half for the month,because i only have 15 .5 pills to work with which will make it a 30 day withdraw..Hows the tapering going for you?..Good luck with yours and Have a GREAT new years! 

[[ke...]]

It's going well.  I'm now at .20.  The liquid suspension lorazepam is great for tapering.

 

Hope all is going well with you.