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I Am Confused By Conflicting Things I'm Reading About Weaning


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#1 Ramona80

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Posted 14 April 2015 - 11:35 AM

Please help me understand this, or reconcile the two pieces of information!

 

I have gathered, from reading I've done online, and from this site, that a very slow taper by bead counting seems like the best way to get off this drug. I have read a number of times that this makes it "tolerable."

 

But at the same time I'm reading that it will be a rough go, even doing it that method. How tolerable is it if you're just going down a couple of beads at a time?


#2 thismoment

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Posted 14 April 2015 - 02:12 PM

Ramona80

 

In general, the slower you wean off the fewer and less acute the symptoms will be. But that is in general. Dr. Stuart Shipko of madinamerica.com --in his excellent articles on Informed Consent-- states that all aspects of dealing with psychiatric drugs is a kind of crap shoot-- meaning the outcome is never guaranteed: some patients just can't tolerate the drug from the beginning; some patients develop acute symptoms immediately and have to withdraw; some can withdraw quickly with few symptoms; some have symptoms even in slow weaning; and some patients cannot successfully re-instate after withdrawing.

 

With long-term weaning of 12-16 months, symptoms have been reported to be light to non-existant. The symptoms themselves are the indicators of whether the weaning regimen is too fast. If symptoms appear (especially difficult symptoms), slow down your weaning regimen-- reduce the dosage removed and extend the timeline.

 

"A couple of beads" can have vastly different meanings depending on how many beads are in a capsule (they can vary from 12 beads to near 600 depending whether the drug is Eli Lilly or a generic). With the brand name and high bead-count you have more control over the taper, and you can reduce it by tiny amounts like 1/2 of 1% per day. With 12 beads you must reduce in steps, which is not ideal because there will always be symptoms between reductions (1 bead out of 12 is more than 8%, and that's a lot).

 

To review, if the weaning is started at a timeline of (say) 1 year, with no steps or missed days planned, there should be very few symptoms. That may seem like a long time to wean off, but it really comes down to the individual-- how much do you wish to endure to see this done?

 

There is good evidence that it is better to suffer less stress than not; therefore, it's worthwhile to consider which withdrawal plan will generate the least stress.

 

Take care.





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