Posted by cubbybear on February 4, 2004, at 1:44:26
In reply to Re: Need Klonopin Taper Schedule from .125 mg., posted by Ame Sans Vie on February 3, 2004, at 11:44:16
Hi Michael,
Your post is definitely the most thought-out and helpful I've ever seen on this subject; I know that your many posts on this board have been more helpful and educated than the advice of some of the most brlliant (??) doctors. I'd just like to update you on what's happened over the past 24 hours regarding my tapering (BTW, I took another .125 mg. dose of Klonopin last night before bed, slept well, and am not feeling anxious today).
I've been perusing the tapering guidelines available on the benzo.org.uk website, which solidly advocates switching to the equivalent dosage of Valium (diazepam) and then tapering at the rate of 1 mg. every 1-2 weeks when Klonopin dosage is .125 mg./day. When I first came across this website, I was turned off by its anti-benzo tone and figured that it was the product of some hysterical benzophobes.
I now believe that even though the Ashton group is very much opposed to benzo usage beyond 4 weeks, they seem to have the expertise to offer some very helpful advice on tapering off. Not only that, their suggestions on having your pharmacy make up special capsules with ultra-low doses are quite intriguing; and I would definitely inquire about that if I run into problems with the dose reduction schedule of 1 mg. (Valium) every 1-2 weeks.
I don't believe that liquid Klonopin is available at Bangkok Hospital, although I didn't inquire for sure about it.
If you or anyone else is wondering about the drug professionals' expertise here in "The Land of Smiles," I can tell you that there are some incompetent doctors on this side of the Pacific as well. My regular pdoc is available only on Saturdays and the "semi-emergency" of Monday's withdrawal anxiety necessitated my seeing a different guy yesterday. I brought along my graph that details exactly how my tapering has progressed from 3.75 mg./day, and I described what I felt on Monday after several alternating days on 0 mg.
Well, this guy screwed up on 2 major points: a) he was insistent that my anxiety was a panic attack that is common in middle-age people who get depressed; he said that it was definitely not withdrawal anxiety from my benzo dose reduction; b) worse yet, he was insistent on my using his own diazepam-clonazepam equivalency figure, which is way off what I've seen published on 2 separate websites. Even the hospital pharmacist showed me a book that they use which states the widely-accepted equivalency of 5 mg. diazeam to .25 mg. clonazepam. If I want to be fool enough to go with the doctor's equivalency, I could be bringing plenty of misery upon myself, so I'm going to toss out his figures and use the widely-accepted one above.
The only good thing to come out of this disconcerting session is that the guy wrote me out a script for 40 tabs of 2 mg. diazepam, which I plan to cut into halves (for 1 mg.) and quarters (for .5 mg.) with my pill cutter, and see how it goes.
Meanwhile, I want to thank you again for your time-consuming and most considerate efforts at typing out your post. I will definitely keep a printed copy in the event that I have to taper even slower.
cubbybear
poster:cubbybear
thread:308755
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040131/msgs/309164.html