Need taper plan for Klonopin - or at least advice!

[[li...]]

Hi!

 

I'm back again with a goofy question!  Sorry about all of my taper/cutting questions.  I'm looking at maybe tapering 10% of previous dose every 3 days - I'm using a compounding pharmacy for help instead of doing titration (titration is too complicated for my brain now!).  If I do it based on the PREVIOUS dose instead of the original dose, I get down to a lot of .01mgs, but maybe my body can adjust easier than with the bigger jumps.  Initially I was closer to the .125mg (12.5%), but near the end going from .5 to ..375 is actually a 25% drop.  If I choose to drop the 10% of previous doses, how often should I decrease?  I've seen anywhere between 2-7 days.  Is there a rule of thumb to base this on?

 

If I didn't make sense, I apologize!  I will try to explain it better if you have a tough time understanding.

 

Thank you A LOT!

Lisa

[[dr...]]

Hi Lisa:

 

Good question.  Generally speaking, cuts are counted 10% off of original dose (that's 10% every 7-14 days).  From there you can fine tune.

 

Draftsman

[[Be...]]

I always assumed you took the percent of the previous total dose rather than the original dose you were once on.  I mean, if someone had been on 40mg of Valium and tapered down to 5mg, you wouldn't want them cutting by 4mg (10% of 40mg).  I do know that the percentage cuts become pretty meaningless at lower doses.  I cut by .125mg from 1.25mg all the way to 0, btw.

[[so...]]

Lisa , dealing with percentages can really throw people off, and really confuse them. 

for example I chose to cut my dose of K by 10% per week all the way to the end.

Now if you start at 1 mg of K  and cut 10% per week, you would be cutting your daily dose by .1 mg. per week for 10 weeks.

But lets say you wanted to cut your benzo by 10% per week , but your starting point is .5 mg of benzo.

If you did this you would be cutting .05mg. per week for the 10 weeks, which makes my 10 % per week cut seem like a much higher dose.

I hope you can see what I am getting at when you deal with percentages. 

If and when you have trouble sticking with the percentage of your original starting point , then you just adjust  on the fly.

IN other words , If you started out at 1 mg of benzo, cut .1 mg. per week  (10% per week) and found this to work ok for first 2 to 3 weeks but appeared to be getting harder as you got near .5 mg, you could just redue the percentages from there lowering the cuts to .05 mg. per week for 10 weeks from the new starting point. 

Math can be confusing, so I hope I am not sending you into a tizzy. 

st.

[[dr...]]

You bring up a good point and ultimately subjective judgment has to come into play in establishing where you want the starting point to be.  It can be somewhat arbitrary.  So in Lisa's case are you are thinking the previous total dose is .625?  Yes, she could take 10% of .625 and move forward in that manner, now reducing .0625 every 7-14 days.  But it can get confusing.  Every time one stops during their taper they can ask the same question again, recalculate, and move the taper further and further out (in theory without ever stopping).

 

I like to think of it as 10% from the original dose generally speaking, then revise if you need to for slowing it down (i.e. if you hit a wall).

 

I mean, if someone had been on 40mg of Valium and tapered down to 5mg, you wouldn't want them cutting by 4mg (10% of 40mg).  I do know that the percentage cuts become pretty meaningless at lower doses.  I cut by .125mg from 1.25mg all the way to 0, btw.

 

Right, if they had hit a wall at 5mg, it's time to re evaluate.  The 10% rule has worked quite well up to this point, and almost to completion.  I'm not so sure it has to be applied again here though.  At this point the rule has served its purpose, and I would probably think of slowing things down more by feel rather than by the 10% rule.

 

I hope this hasn't thrown more confusion into the mix for you Lisa.  If it were me, I might make my next cut .0625 rather than .125 to see how I feel.

 

Draftsman

[[li...]]

Thanks everyone!  My math skills are usually top notch, but with the benzo brain, it just has to work harder.  But I do know that if I was to go down .125 (dry cutting initially) from my 2 half mg K every two weeks, then the tapers at the end would be fairly larger percentages of the previous dose as opposed to the original dose.  I was wondering if that's why many people have a tougher time near the end, or from what I've heard, under the .5 mg K. 

 

So let me ask this, if I'm looking at 10% of previous dose, it's going to be smaller cuts - should I still keep those at 2 weeks or do it like the titration where I see people go down .01 mg every couple of days?  So, if I'm tapering from .625mg K to .563 (10%), how long is it best to hold this dose?  If I was to stick to my initial plan, I would be cutting to .5 and holding for 2 weeks.  Do you all follow me?  I'm sorry if I'm making this more confusing that it probably is!!!  I do know that I will need to listen to my body too, in which I know I've probably gone too fast up to this point, as to why I ask!!

 

ALL of your feedback is helpful...so thank you all!! 

Lisa

[[Be...]]

I don't think there's a set time to hold, Lisa.  It's one of those "listen to your body" things in my opinion.  I'd probably plan on waiting two weeks between reductions but possibly do it at 10 days if I felt good and ready to cut.  That being said, I was in tolerance withdrawal virtually the whole way and never felt ready to cut so I just stuck to an every 2 weeks cut to get it over with. 

[[Wi...]]

Every 3 days seems mighty fast. Listen to your body.  It will tell you if you are moving to fast.