Cutting a Pill to Reduce 1/8 the Amount.

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Hi All,

            I've been a member for a while and have postponed tapering also. Anyway, in a nutshell, I take 1 1/2 mg of Alprazolam at bedtime. If I want to reduce the amount by 1/8 of a mg, how much is cut off a .5mg (half a pill) to make it 1/8? I know if I cut the half in half that would be a 25% reduction. A bit high according to many people here. What if I took the half of the half (a 25% cut) and cut the other half in half and added that to the dose of the 25% cut. How much of a cut would that be?

      Any input would be great. Thanks.

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I just did my own math. If I added a half of a half, that would be a 12.5% reduction. Too much?

[[Br...]]

We typically suggest making cuts of no more than 5-10% so 12.5% would be pushing it.  It can be hard to judge reductions just by eyeballing but it can be done.  Some people use a nail file to remove small amounts.

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Here is the answer to your question.

If you want to reduce 1/8 of a mg and each pill is 0.5mg, then do this.

Take a 0.5mg pill can cut it into quarters.

Then, instead of taking 3 of your 0.5 mg pills, take 2 full pills and 3 of the quarter pieces.  Just say the other quarter piece for later.

This gives you an 8.3% reduction.

 

 

 

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Thanks, Brighterday and Bob7. This gives me something to work with. 

   Bob, my pills are 1mg, so if a do make a cut, it will already be a 1mg halved. Taking a 0.5 half and quartering those will be quite a challenge. I'm going to try and quarter an already halved 1mg pill to see if it can be done. If not, I'll probably use the file method. Either way, thank you both for your advice. 

Edited January 5 by [...]

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I wonder if you can ask you doctor to prescribed pills in 0.5 mg dose.  Many people do this for tapering.

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You took the words out of my head. I was just going to post that i would ask my doctor for the 0.5 script for reduction. I actually think my doctor wants me on this crap. When I mentioned a taper to her, she said, "Oh it's no big deal." and kind of poo poohed it.

I think I'll go play a lottery ticket-lol Again, thanks for your advice.

Edited January 5 by [...]