Posted by Dave001 on September 24, 2004, at 0:37:39
In reply to Re: Effexor -tapering Q, posted by ants on September 23, 2004, at 16:18:15
> I have read a lot of posts about tapering and "cutting the pills". My effexor is in caplets (I think...plastic containers with little particles inside them). Is there some way to open these up and separate the contents? I have a whole bunch of 75mg that I am supposed to start next week, but I would rather stick to 37.5 for a while (what I am on now). Is it ok to dissolve the effexor in water or mix it in food or something instead of just taking the whole capsule?
If I were concerned about withdrawal from Effexor, this is what I would do: check a recent copy of the Merck Index to find out the solubility of venlafaxine. Choose an appropriate solvent and dissolve the contents of the capsules into a solution from which you can easily measure precise
amounts. By using a lot of solvent, you could make it easy to dispense doses with a reasonable accuracy of +/- 1/mg. I would probably fill a 100 ml graduated cylinder with the solution, and then use that to prefill syringes (you can get oral syringes from the supermarket) with the desired amounts for each day. For obvious reasons the most you would need per day in a solution would be < 37.5 mg if you have 37.5 mg caps, or < 75 mg if you have 75 mg caps. Don't know the stability of venlafaxine but you should refrigerate the solution, and preferably use something other than water.I doubt you would notice any withdrawal symptoms if you reduced the dose by 1 mg/day. If there's no pressing need to discontinue the drug, why not? :-)
Dave
poster:Dave001
thread:12459
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040921/msgs/394381.html