Compound Tapering

[[mo...]]

Im really struggling. I need imput.

I wanted to water taper from .5mg clonazepam very slow but Dr said compounding taper 10% every 2 weeks. I'm not tolerating WDs well. If I choose to water taper slower how do I calculate .45mg to liquid ml. My brain hurts. Math not my strong suit. Tapering at 10% every 2 weeks is 2 fast.

[[El...]]

@[mo...] I am not as familiar with Clonazepam, but I would suspect it does not completely dissolve in water.  You would, rather, be making a suspension.  You would need to crush you pill as much as possible before putting it in the water.  Then make sure you keep shaking your suspension vigoursly throughout.  You could try putting a 0.5 mg pill (crushed) into 100 ml of water.  If you remove 10 ml of the suspended solution, drink the remaining 90 ml, you would be at 0.45 mg.  Or you could do it stepwise...first day remove 2 ml, drink 98 ml for 0.49 mg; in the next day or so, remove 4 ml, drink 96 ml for 0.48 mg...etc.

If a 100 ml solution is too concentrated, you could suspend your 0.5 mg pill in 200 ml, then remove 20 ml and drink 180 ml.  Or stepwise...first remove 4ml, drink 196 ml, then remove 8 ml, drink 192 ml, etc.

If you reduce immediately from 0.5 mg to 0.45 mg, that is a 10% reduction.  From 0.45 mg to 0.4 mg is a 11.1% drop.  These are significant reductions if you are not feeling well to start.  And your percentage will continue to increase if you make these step-wise reductions (a question from another thread).

I would suspect that formulated Clonazepam would be more accurate (a question from another thread).

Hope this is not too complicated.  Let me know!

[[mo...]]

It is the generic form of klonopin. I trust compounding pharmacist but I think it needs to be reductions of 5% instead of 10%+. My psychiatrist is pushing me to be off in 5 mths. She pushed me from 1mg to .5 in 8 weeks which about did me in. I HAVE to function because of being sole caretaker of 1 elderly and 1 disabled family members.

Thank-you for helping me. 

[[st...]]

 

Hi, I also couldn’t stabilize at 0.25 mg clonazepam and had to go back up to 0.5 mg. The thing with this drug is that as the dose gets smaller, I had to go slower. So 5% every two weeks is much better than 10%.

The taper time should be symptom based, not a fixed number of months. Many people slow down the lower they get because withdrawal symptoms increase. I told my doctor that I need to slow down to remain functional. In retrospect I wish I wouldn’t have told the doctor I’m tapering so he wouldn’t rush me or restrict my pills like he did.

I had a jewelry scale (like this one: https://www.amazon.com/AWS-Portable-Precision-Digital-Milligram/dp/B0012TDNAM?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1) to weigh the pills and to slice or shave away the right % amount.

 

 

[[mo...]]

Coumpounding Expets Help!!

I just started pharmacy compounding taper. How does daily dose not fluctuate in the liquid. I shake bottle before using syringe for dose. What keeps meds consistent in the liquid so as not to have daily fluctuating doses...

[[Li...]]

Hello @[mo...] I see you already have a tapering strategies thread so I’m including the link to it here for continuity:

https://benzobuddies.org/topic/278442-compounding-taper-vs-water-tapering/

If you have not already done so, I suggest you ask your compounding pharmacist what ingredients they use and whether the liquid is a solution or a suspension.

In the interim, do the instructions on the bottle state “Shake well before using.”  

If so, it’s likely the liquid is a suspension.

In the US, formulations for liquid clonazepam suspensions typically contain a commercial suspending vehicle such as OraPlus, OraBlend, or SyrSpend. As the name implies, suspending vehicles are specifically designed to hold drug particles in suspension.  

Shaking the liquid well before use ensures that the drug particles will be evenly distributed throughout the suspension and the suspending vehicle ensures they will remain in suspension while the dose is measured.

Are you experiencing an issue with your taper?  If so, given the information you’ve shared in your other thread, I wonder if it may be due to a too rapid taper.

[[mo...]]

How do I transfer to other thread. Im not tech save. Just old lady with benzo brain

[[Pa...]]

3 minutes ago, [[m...] said:

How do I transfer to other thread. Im not tech save. Just old lady with benzo brain

Hi @[mo...]. I merged your two threads together for continuity purposes, thanks @[Li...] for the link. 

[[mo...]]

Just now, [[P...] said:

Hi @[mo...]. I merged your two threads together for continuity purposes, thanks @[Li...] for the link. 

Thank-you