NEW powerful spreadsheet to create and work with your hyperbolic taper

[[oz...]]

Hi everyone!

 

I have created a spreadsheet in google sheets that you can freely copy to your google drive and use with your own taper.

I could not find any resource like this on the web, and after seeing a lot of people doing microtaper and cut and holds, both dry and liquid, in a linear way, I decided to make a took to properly taper in a hyperbolic way.

Please watch the video below. The link to the spreadsheet will be there in the description and the first comments.

 

 

[[Li...]]

Thank you for sharing your spreadsheet with us, ozbuddy.  I’m glad it is helping you with your taper.

 

A point of clarification if I may …

 

Am I understanding correctly that your spreadsheet calculates reductions based on percent of current drug dose (vs original/starting dose)?  If so, then your spreadsheet generates data for an exponential taper — not a hyperbolic taper.

 

My current (admittedly limited) understanding of Dr. Horowitz’s work (see link below) is that hyperbolic tapers are based on drug receptor occupancy calculated using the Michaelis-Menten equation of best fit.  My further understanding is that Dr. Horowitz is writing a book that will include examples of hyperbolic tapering regimens for several different psychiatric drugs (my hope is it will include regimens for at least some of the benzodiazepines).

 

Link:

Dr. Mark Horowitz, MBBS PhD

https://markhorowitz.org/

[[ne...]]

Wait, what? I thought we were supposed to do reductions based on percent of current drug dose? And I thought that was a hyperbolic taper? It's certainly what I have been doing since the start of my taper, as per BIC and Inner Compass guidelines. Have I got it wrong?

 

A “cut and hold” method involves reducing the current dose by a set amount (not more than 5% to 10% of the current dose) and holding the new dose until symptoms subside. It often takes several weeks after a reduction for the nervous system to settle.

 

Source: Benzodiazepine Information Coalition: Benzodiazepine Tapering Strategies And Solutions

 

Making a monthly reduction of 5-10% per month, calculated upon each previous month’s dose, is very different from making a monthly reduction of 5-10% per month calculated upon the original dose that a person was taking at the start of their taper.

 

Source: THE WITHDRAWAL PROJECT: Psychiatric Drug Taper Rates

 

 

[[Li...]]

You’re fine.  It’s just the terminology that needs to be be clarified.  Exponential reductions are calculated as described on the BIC, Inner Compass, and Surviving Antidepressant websites.  Hyperbolic reductions are calculated in a different way.

 

Here’s a video featuring Dr. Horowitz that explains hyperbolic versus linear and exponential tapering, starting around the 22:15m mark:

 

What We Know About Safely Stopping Benzodiazepines from Research

Mark Horowitz, MBBS, PhD

Sponsored by the Benzo Warrior Community on March 12, 2023

 

[[ne...]]

Thanks, Libertas, for explaining more clearly what you meant. I am at ease now. The first taper I did back in 2017 was a linear taper, I didn't understand at the time that I should reduce exponentially, and it was pure torture and all in all a total disaster. I was scared I haven't done something properly, yet again.

 

I found the video very informative. I mostly liked the explanation for the

and when he

 

As usually, you are a treasure-trove of information!

[[Li...]]

You are most welcome, new0girl.  I’m delighted you found the video informative — it’s definitely worth a watch in my opinion.

 

Thank you for including the direct links to two key slides in the presentation.  As Dr. Horowitz notes, a hyperbolic reduction regimen is reasonably well approximated by an exponential reduction regimen.  However, a major advantage of hyperbolic regimens is that they provide a clear, pharmacologically informed jump dose as well as the pathway to get there — i.e. when the changes in effect on the target receptors is less than the size that has been previously tolerated, the person can ‘go to zero.’ 

[[Li...]]

Hi everyone!

 

I have created a spreadsheet in google sheets that you can freely copy to your google drive and use with your own taper.

I could not find any resource like this on the web, and after seeing a lot of people doing microtaper and cut and holds, both dry and liquid, in a linear way, I decided to make a took to properly taper in a hyperbolic way.

Please watch the video below. The link to the spreadsheet will be there in the description and the first comments.

 

 

 

Hello again, ozbuddy. If you have a minute, would you be so kind as to let us know what type of reductions your spreadsheet calculates?  Based on the comments you made in your video, my guess is exponential.  (If you are uncertain, the video I shared upthread explains the difference between linear, exponential, and hyperbolic tapering regimens.)