Posted by SLS on July 24, 2009, at 13:16:50
In reply to Re: Scott, taper rate?, posted by qbsbrown on July 24, 2009, at 10:29:24
> > Personally, I feel that the 10% reduction every 4-5 weeks is absurd. It is an unnecessarily protracted process.
I guess I have to rethink this issue.
Of course, I wish such a long taper period weren't necessary, but perhaps it is.
It seems that those people who take the longest to discontinue a drug have the worst withdrawal. This can be looked at two ways without having more information to work with. Is the extended length of discontinuation a result of the degree of tolerance and withdrawal severity or is the withdrawal severity and persistence the result of a protracted discontinuation schedule? Perhaps the optimum rate of taper is greater than what might seem intuitive.
Kindling?
I don't know.
Now that you are already kindled (in my way of thinking), you will be extremely sensitive to dose reductions. It may not matter whether you drop by 2mg or 4mg. You might experience the same degree of withdrawal symptoms regardless.
If it were me, I would try to use an anticonvulsant drug like Depakote to reduce the severity of withdrawal symptoms along with the time it takes to discontinue. I would consider it an experiment. If it fails, either choose another anticonvulsant, or move on to another strategy. Maybe there are food supplements like magnesium that would help. Magnesium competes for the glutamate NMDA binding site and reduces neuronal excitability. There are people who post on the Alternative board who can be of help with this.
All I know is that I would not be willing to tolerate the experience of withdrawal symptoms that you have. I would sooner discontinue a drug by "feel" than use some sort of rigid taper schedule.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:906673
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20081229/msgs/908348.html