Taper plan for 1 mg. Kolonipin

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Sorry to be a pest but I am very anxious about tapering. Doctor increased Topomax from 50 mg. twice daily to 75 mg.  I will stay on .05 three times daily to complete this month.  Apparently, he wants to build this drug in my system before the I stay going low.  In two weeks, I will take .05 twice and .25 once. He also wants to increase the Topomax to 100 mg. twice a day.  Have not experienced side effects yet. Topomax really helps with anxiety but can be somewhat sedating.

 

I really need suggestions on how to taper 1.0 mg.  I like spreading the doses over the day.  I want to be able to share a plan with my doctor before he gets cut happy. Can anyone give me any suggestions that include dosage and length of time at that dose.  I understand this is not written in stone just a ballpark.

 

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I think it is a bad idea to introduce topomax and I think it is a bad idea to cut from 1.5mg to 1.25mg in one swoop.  That's 17% and it will probably hurt and may set you up for trouble with the rest of your taper.  There are much better ways to do this.

 

It is likely your doctor does not know what he is doing as we see it all the time here.  Doctors mostly just don't know much about removing psych drugs.  The process of restoring the GABA system is a slow one and, as far as we know, there is ONLY one way to do it sanely -  a slow taper.  There are no drugs that help much - at least not yet.

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So I will have been on 1.5 for 1 month before The doctor wants me to go to 1.25.  He is a addiction psychiatrist from the University of Flordia.  He is also very head strong willed. His opinion is that the Topomax will act in the same capacity as the Kolonipin.  ThereforeI do admit that I have not experienced any WD symptoms when  going from 2 to 1.50.  I completely agree with you.  I think I need to slow down.  I had to argue with him to keep the .25 for the next cut. I am at loss.  I can dig in my heels and possibly get booted out as a patient. That would would mean no Meds and I will need to find another doctor.  He seems anxious to get me to 1.0 and then he said we would really slow down.  What would you do?

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One of the most basic rules for tapering benzos and all psych drugs is to allow the patient to direct the pace, not the doctor or anyone else.  It's very important, so having a pushy doctor who won't change is not a good thing.  It might be good to look for another.  The stress alone that he would create for you would make it not worth it.

 

As far as I know, if topomax is not a benzo it can not replace a benzo.  If he says it can and gets results he should write it up since that would qualify as a groundbreaking discovery.  It's encouraging that he says he would slow you down at 1mg at least.