Jump to content
SurvivingAntidepressants.org is temporarily closed to new registrations until 1 April ×

Help with math for tapering


camomille

Recommended Posts

ADMIN NOTE Also see 


How to calculate dosages and dilutions? Spreadsheets and calculators


 

Please, anyone good at math, need help calculating:

 

My 25 mg Zoloft pills weighs between 0.214 and 0.219 mg.

I use a Gemini scale that weighs 10 - 001 gr. I have estimated an average weight of pills to 0.217 mg.

 

If I want to decrease 1.01% from 0.217 how much should the pill weigh?

To clarify: how much is 0.217 minus 1.01%?

 

I have been doing a liquid taper from pills but I cant tolerate the fast absorbtion and now I want to transfer to using a digital scale.

 

Please anyone?

 

Thanks a million ❤️

Edited by Altostrata
added admin note

2007 Sertralin 50 mg Oxasepam 5 mg

2008 Sertralin 25 mg Valium 2mg

2012 Started Valium taper Sertralin 25 mg

2012 Valium 1 mg Sertralin 25 mg

2017 Valium 0,60 mg Sertralin 25 mg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderator

A 1% reduction of a 217mg tablet will be 214mg which falls in the range of the weight of the pills you're working with.  So you will have to weigh each pill individually and multiply that weight by .99 to get the dose weight.

 

The final 0.01% is going to be very hard to do.  The amounts you'd be working with are so small and the scales just aren't accurate enough.  You could by ones that are but you're looking at 10-15K dollars.  If you divide 217mgpw (pill weight) by 25mgai Active ingredient) you get 1mgai of Zoloft for every 8.6mgpw.  So 1mgpw will give you 0.11mgai.

 

So using the original weight of 217mgpw and reducing to 213mgpw, doing very careful measurements, it could be possible to get a reduction of 1.1% using your scales (still not the number you're after).  However, there is an accuracy issue with the scales when you start to get that fine.  For accuracy and fine tuning you can't beat the liquid methods.

 

The big question is, is that 0.01% really all that important?

20 years on Paxil starting at 20mg and working up to 40mg. Sept 2011 started 10% every 6 weeks taper (2.5% every week for 4 weeks then hold for 2 additional weeks), currently at 7.9mg. Oct 2011 CTed 15oz vodka a night, to only drinking 2 beers most nights, totally sober Feb 2013.

Since I wrote this I have continued to decrease my dose by 10% every 6 weeks (2.5% every week for 4 weeks and then hold for an additional 2 weeks). I added in an extra 6 week hold when I hit 10mg to let things settle out even more. When I hit 3mgpw it became hard to split the drop into 4 parts so I switched to dropping 1mgpw (pill weight) every week for 3 weeks and then holding for another 3 weeks.  The 3 + 3 schedule turned out to be too harsh so I cut back to dropping 1mgpw every 4 weeks which is working better.

Final Dose 0.016mg.     Current dose 0.000mg 04-15-2017

 

"It's also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life is, because you can loose all hope if you can't laugh at yourself and at life in general."  Stephen Hawking

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you so much, that is helping and reassuring me so much!

I wake up every night a couple of hours after taking my liquid with a panicky start and screeching tinnitus. I did not react like this when I took the pill. So maybe I will consider going back on pills and later on at the smaller doses again return to liquid.

 

You are the best in this group!

2007 Sertralin 50 mg Oxasepam 5 mg

2008 Sertralin 25 mg Valium 2mg

2012 Started Valium taper Sertralin 25 mg

2012 Valium 1 mg Sertralin 25 mg

2017 Valium 0,60 mg Sertralin 25 mg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Altostrata changed the title to Help with math for tapering
  • 1 month later...

I have a math question.

 

If I am taking .55 ml of 1 ml where the active ingredient is 3mg per ml, then I am taking 1.65 mgs, correct? I started making reductions based on dropper position, and not mgs, because reducing by mgs when following the protocol of 10% of previous months dose means you technically will never get to zero....

 

Thank you for your help!

2005-2009 Various ADs and maybe some random Ativan, nothing long-term

2009 Started Celexa 10 mg

2012 Symptoms of depression worsened when I quit drinking, started a course of Viibryd (10 mg), Buspar (5 mg), Xanax

2013 Hospitalized, added Lamictal in the hospital (quit Lamictal cold turkey in 2014)

2014 Switched back to Celexa from Viibryd

2015 Quit Buspar cold turkey

2016 Cut down to 5 mg of Celexa (all seemingly without issues)

June-August 2017 tapered off Celexa

October 2017 Hospitalized for insomnia (quit sleeping entirely)

reinstated w/ Trintellix 5mg (stopped in 1/18) and 7.5 mg of Mirtazapine

Mirtazapine (in mgs) 2/18 5,  6/19 3.5, 9/25/19 3.2, 2/24/20 2.9, 3/2020 2.85, 6/20/20 2.5, 10/3/20 2.3, 11/30/20 2.1, 1/1/21 1.95 3/19/21 1.86 9/1/21 1.65 11/30 1.5 mgs 3/1/22 1.41 mgs 6/28/22 1.37 mgs 10/22 1.20 mgs

Daily supplements: 470 mgs magnesium, Miralax, 640 Omega complex, probiotic, testosterone 2 gms, progesterone 12.5 mgs

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator

Calling @brassmonkey!

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderator

@LiaJ-- Yes your math is correct.

 

I do recommend that you start working in mg for your dose. It will be much more accurate, especially when yo get to the smaller doses. Which is very important. Yes, the graph or a 10% reduction is a hyperbolic curve that never reaches "0". But at some point the doses become so small that they are ineffective and extremely hard to measure. Just before that point is where we recommend people make the jump to "0".

20 years on Paxil starting at 20mg and working up to 40mg. Sept 2011 started 10% every 6 weeks taper (2.5% every week for 4 weeks then hold for 2 additional weeks), currently at 7.9mg. Oct 2011 CTed 15oz vodka a night, to only drinking 2 beers most nights, totally sober Feb 2013.

Since I wrote this I have continued to decrease my dose by 10% every 6 weeks (2.5% every week for 4 weeks and then hold for an additional 2 weeks). I added in an extra 6 week hold when I hit 10mg to let things settle out even more. When I hit 3mgpw it became hard to split the drop into 4 parts so I switched to dropping 1mgpw (pill weight) every week for 3 weeks and then holding for another 3 weeks.  The 3 + 3 schedule turned out to be too harsh so I cut back to dropping 1mgpw every 4 weeks which is working better.

Final Dose 0.016mg.     Current dose 0.000mg 04-15-2017

 

"It's also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life is, because you can loose all hope if you can't laugh at yourself and at life in general."  Stephen Hawking

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

Hello! I need help with math also.

I'm taking 12.5mg of IR venlafexine. I want to have a 4 week hold and decrease by 10%. .

Would it be better to make a liquid?

2009-2014 garden variety SSRI

2014- effexor 75mg

2015- effexor 150mg

2015- effexor 75, 37.5

Clonazepam .05mg

2015- no meds for 7 months

2016- effexor 75mg

2017- 2022 effexor 37.5

June 5 2022- no meds

July 12 2022 - 12.5 Pristiq

July 16 2022 stopped Pristiq

July 28 2022 - 25mg IR venlafexine

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy