Posted by SLS on February 14, 2005, at 9:31:32
I taper by "feel" and use no other substances for remediation.
This is a very clumsy description of what I do:I have always had success discontinuing Effexor and Paxil by tapering by "feel". I taper quickly in the beginning, waiting to find the point at which withdrawal symptoms develop, then I slow down. I take just enough drug to prevent these symptoms from being too uncomfortable. I can usually find a dosage that makes them disappear temporarily. Towards the end of the tapering period, I use factions of pills or capsules instead of being confined to using the whole doses provided by the manufacturer. Of course, a liquid would be better. I also do not confine myself to a therapeutic dosing schedule. In other words, I will take small amounts of the drug several times a day - even when using the extended release preparations. As a matter of fact, I purposely wait until withdrawal symptoms just begin to reappear before taking taking the next dose of drug. I take as little drug as will allow me to go another 6-8 hours with greatly reduced symptoms or no symptoms at all. It is good to observe an pay careful attention to what symptoms are characteristic of your withdrawal syndrome so that you can identify it as soon as it reappears. On an empty stomach, it might take 15-30 minutes after a dose for these to subside. I sometimes allow the drug to dissolve a bit sublingually or bucally. I then wash the rest down with water. I find that I am able to use less and less drug to prevent the reemergence of symptoms for this 6-8 hour period. I also find that, if done correctly, the period without symptoms extends further and further. I have opened up extend-release capsules and used the granules contained in them for these fractional doses. Contrary to what some others have said to suggest that you should not do this because it confounds the purpose of the extended release design, this strategy serves the purpose well as these preparations are currently formulated. Of course, you can just use the tablets and cut smaller and smaller pieces off of them. I just nibble at them whenever I feel the withdrawal symptoms coming on.
I have tried discontinuing these SRI medications without this taper method and experienced many of the withdrawal symptoms that others describe, including those poorly-understood "brain-zaps" or "brain-shivers". I am not one of those people whom can go on and off these drugs easily and without a discontinuation syndrome.
I really hope this strategy works for someone other than me. I have used this same strategy to discontinue benzodiazepines like Ativan.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:457546
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20050214/msgs/457546.html