Dosage drops during taper

Hi guys,

Can I make up for having to make larger-than-recommended dosage drops by waiting longer in between drops? I don't have access to liquid Zoloft and don't feel comfortable cutting pills into fourths.

I started with 75mg and am two weeks into my taper. Here's my tentative plan:

4 weeks on 62.5mg
6 weeks on 50
10 weeks on 37.5
14 weeks on 25
22 weeks on 12.5

[LCrawford67]

Not usually. Large drops are large drops and the brain normally doesn't like that.

[mustangwoman]

Honestly the best thing I ever did was get a jewelry scale. You go by the weight and you can decrease it a very, very small bit at a time. This has been wonderful for me. There's no guess work. Right now my medicine weighs .96 of a gram and when I reduce it is slowly, so when I go down again I will go to .95. It is very slow, but it has caused minimal side effects. Just a thought.

[chiropteran]

LCrawford and sparks are on the money with this one. Get that scale (make sure it goes down to 0.001g), weigh a whole box of your pills and work out the average weight of one pill, then divide it by how many mgs are in the pill. Voila, you know what 1mg of med (including the pill filler) weighs, and you can shave pills to drop any little amount you want. It's really not as hard as it sounds.

Good news guys--I went to the pharmacy and found out that I could get liquid Zoloft! And I've decided to stop making excuses and bite the bullet to make sure this taper goes well. So how is this plan: (I am on 62.5mg now)

55 mg
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
12.5
10
7.5
5
2.5
0

I would wait one month in between each drop.

Finally, how does one take the liquid form? Mix it with water?

[julieannboo]

they are still big drops you want to make using liquid.

you are determined not to listen to the 10% rule aren't you?

with paxil - you just take it then maybe have a drink of water after you swallowed the liquid. not sure about zoloft.

[mustangwoman]

That sounds a lot better than the first plan. One thing I do is to not go any lower until I feel stable regardless. I wish you the best in your taper.

[AmyK]

It's hard to plan the taper in advance. You have to listen to how your body react. I would have started with the 10 percent method and see how it goes. Good luck!

Originally Posted by julieannboo

you are determined not to listen to the 10% rule aren't you?

Well, what confuses me about the 10% is this: eventually, you will have to drop more than 10%, or else you will be on the taper forever. So, at what point do you drop more than 10%?

[julieannboo]

Originally Posted by ElVito1981

Well, what confuses me about the 10% is this: eventually, you will have to drop more than 10%, or else you will be on the taper forever. So, at what point do you drop more than 10%?

here is the 10% taper dropping every 3-6 weeks from 20mg:

20mg
18mg
16.2mg
14.6mg
13.1mg
11.8mg
10.6mg
9.6mg
8.6mg
7.7mg
7mg
6.3mg
5.6mg
5.1mg
4.6mg
4.1mg
3.7mg
3.3mg
3mg
2.7mg
2.4mg
2.2mg
2mg
1.8mg
1.6mg
1.4mg
1.3mg
1.2mg
1mg

Originally Posted by julieannboo

here is the 10% taper dropping every 3-6 weeks from 20mg:

20mg
18mg
16.2mg
14.6mg
13.1mg
11.8mg
10.6mg
9.6mg
8.6mg
7.7mg
7mg
6.3mg
5.6mg
5.1mg
4.6mg
4.1mg
3.7mg
3.3mg
3mg
2.7mg
2.4mg
2.2mg
2mg
1.8mg
1.6mg
1.4mg
1.3mg
1.2mg
1mg

That's for Paxil though. I'm on Zoloft, and 20 mg of Paxil = 50 mg of Zoloft.

Also, you didn't show when you completely go off the Paxil. Will you go from 1mg to zero? If so, that's a 100% drop, which contradicts the 10% rule.

[aberdeen]

Maybe at the end you could do .5mg from the 1mg...? But anyway you said you take Zoloft. YOu can do the same thing for that, subtract 10% each time. I guess at the bitter end, you're taking so little that 100% or 50% is hardly noticeable.

[julieannboo]

by 1mg is isn't doing anything anyway - it is a tiny amount.

alot of people stop at 1mg or you can carry on:

.9mg
.8mg
.7mg
.6mg

cant you do the 10% taper with zoloft?

[jheaney1]

My theory is that the brain adjusts to tapering at about 10% per month, regardless of how fast we taper the dosage. If you drop 20%, it will take two months or so for your brain to catch up. The larger the drop, the longer it takes to catch up. I think that's why people who cold turkey experience withdrawal symptoms for extended periods.

[Backtopaxil]

Originally Posted by ElVito1981

That's for Paxil though. I'm on Zoloft, and 20 mg of Paxil = 50 mg of Zoloft.

Also, you didn't show when you completely go off the Paxil. Will you go from 1mg to zero? If so, that's a 100% drop, which contradicts the 10% rule.

Paxil and Zoloft are part of the same family but paxil has been proven to be much harder to withdraw from.

The 10% rule is anecdotal , no science but experience about it, and this assists pretty much every body so that they can have quality of life while tapering. Some people can not even do 10% and have to go much lower, some others get away with more. Some others have tapered using the 10% rule and have had to reinstate after no medication was present.

You just need to try what works best for you. But again, 10% is a good suggestion.

[Massive]

I drop about 1.25mg each time. Don't have the scales and been doing this over a year. Not sure why I haven't done all the weighing etc. I just don't want to make a big deal out of it and get all worried.

I drop then continue and forget I dropped. Usually leave it for ages and forget about it.

Originally Posted by julieannboo

cant you do the 10% taper with zoloft?

Yeah, I can. But again, at some point I'll have to drop by more than 10%. So how will I know when that is?

[Brassmonkey]

You'll know when you get there. There is no hard science behind these tapers it is all learning as you go and using other peoples experiences as a guide. On paxil most people taper to 1mg and then CT, but some go off at 5mg and some carry it on in to the fractions. By the time you get there you should know how your body reacts to each drop. The 10% rule is a suggested starting place. Many people tolerate the first few drops better and go larger, but 10% is what seems to work for most people. The amounts will probably have to be adjusted as your taper continues and life catches up with you, which is why it is ot good to try and plan the whole taper in advance. Yea, it seems that a 10% taper will taks for ever, but you will be supprised at how fast it really goes. I started at 40mg fo paxil last October and in a few weeks I will be at 20mg, half of my original dose and if all goes well I should be off in about a year. Compaired to a life time that ain't long at all. It is best to just get started and learn as you go, there is a lot of experience here and everyone is willing to share.

(((((((HUGS of encouragement))))))))))

Thanks guys. I'm glad to be taking it a lot more slowly than I originally planned. Having a smooth taper and healing time when it's done makes the long duration more than worth it.

So, with the liquid med, do you just mix it with water and then drink or what?

What's the most effective way to take the liquid Zoloft?

[JessG]

Originally Posted by ElVito1981

What's the most effective way to take the liquid Zoloft?

This is something you need to ask your pharmacist. From what I have read it can only be mixed with water, lemon lime soda, lemonade or orange juice. But you really need to ask your pharmacist about the specifics and how to do it correctly.

Sounds good! Thanks again guys for all your help! It's funny how naive I was when I first joined PP almost a month ago: I was planning on doing a 3-month taper, dropping from 75mg to 50 to 25 to 0. LOL! That would have been BAAADD news.

I'm currently on 62.5mg--I made this first drop b/c I didn't think I would be able to use the liquid form of Zoloft. Now that I found out I could (again, thanks to you guys!), here's my prospective--yet tentative--remaining plan, with one-month waits in between drops:

60 mg
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
17.5
15
12.5
10
7.5
5
2.5
0 -- plan to be SSRI-free for good on 8/7/2013