Pregnant on .5MG Klonopin trying to get off "quickly" but smoothly.

[[Ho...]]

Hi all I posted about a taper plan before but don't think I gave enough information and we have since revised the plan.

 

Currently my wife is stable on .5MG of Klonopin which she's been on for about 6 months. She learned she's pregnant so she aggressively tried to do a .37>.25>0 jump and that didn't go well.

 

We're now going to follow the approach in the Ashton manual however there isn't a schedule for .5mg of Klonpin only a schedule for 1.5MG of Klonopin. We looked at that chart and just started at the point where you're on .5mg of Klonopin. Unfortunately thats at the bottom of the chart and it just says "reduce 1MG of diazapam every 2 weeks until 0"

 

So our plan now is to switch from .5mg Klonopin to 10mg Diazepam. Then taper 1MG of Diazepam every 2 weeks. That would take about 20 weeks to get of klonopin and she would be off just at the start of her 3rd trimester. Which is when the doctor stressed you should be off benzos by to prevent withdrawal symptoms in the baby.

 

Does this plan make sense to you guys. Does this sound doable? Do you think we could speed it up to 1MG/week?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[[Ro...]]

It sounds sensible.  I don't know if you figured in the weeks it will take to do the crossover.  As far as the 1 week or 2 week taper rate, I'd let the withdrawal symptoms dictate that.  Also, it could be in the middle,say, every 10 days, which is the lower limit suggested here.

[[Ho...]]

Thanks! Could you elaborate on the crossover? Do you think that will be challenging?

[[Ho...]]

Ah I see. It takes time to build up V in your system so you need to smoothly transition from K to V.

 

What would be a smooth switch schedule from .5K to 10MG V?

[[Ro...]]

I'm really not qualified to give you an exact schedule, but the transition would be over a few weeks and each week you'd gradually up the dose of V.

 

Would you divide all the figures by 3 since she's on .5 mg and not 1.5 mg.  I'm not exactly sure, tbh.

[Guest [Ro...]]

Just reaching out to support you.  It must be terribly scary to be on K while pregnant and it's so hard to get off for many people.

 

Someone more qualified in tapering than me will respond to you, but my gut feeling is not to switch off K.  I tapered on K all the way down to .044 with just a scale and a dry cut.  I followed a symptom based taper which meant that I tapered based on my symptoms and not on a specific timeline. I realize that may not work for you and I hope that someone who has been pregnant can chime in to offer input. 

 

Wishing you the best!

[[Ho...]]

Just to chime in here for anyone who is pregnant and on benzos and sees this.

We were absolutely terrified of this situation because the zeitgeist is that benzos and pregnancy are terrible.

 

After meeting with my wife's OBGYN and new reproductive psychiatrist we went from seriously considering terminating to feeling confident about continuing the pregnancy.

 

The risks you'll hear about benzos and pregnancy are an old study about clef palette but apparently that study has since been invalidated.

The primary risk that people have with benzos and pregnancy is passing on the dependency to the infant. Which can manifest as "floppy infant" (failure to latch), extreme irritability, extra monitoring at the hospital after birth.

 

Our reproductive psychiatrist (who is familiar with the Ashton manual and referred to it as the gold standard of benzo tapering plans)

felt that at our comparatively low dose of K .5mg while continuing to smoothly and safely taper shouldn't be a risk to the infant.

 

Regarding infant health she was more concerned about tapering too fast than being on the benzos (assuming we still continue to taper of course).

 

Lastly regarding neurological issues there is no medical studies for or against it regarding benzos.

 

Hope this helps anyone who is scared and finds this post.