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

Gathering tapering data


Brain

Recommended Posts

I was just reading this thread with Rhi's hypothesis about the viability of multi-drug tapers, and he kept emphasizing how there have never been any scientific studies done to determine whether one-at-a-time or mulitiple-at-a-time withdrawal strategies are better. That got me thinking about how right now, the standard approaches for withdrawal recommended here and elsewhere seem to be well-informed approaches based on numerous individual anecdotal reports, but that there's a limited amount of actual data behind them. Meaning that the anecdotal reports have not been systematically aggregated and put into a form that can answer interesting questions. What we need is actual data about the course of tapering over many different people. Then we could figure things out like "What's the most common rate of withdrawal for people who successfully got off of Zoloft?" Maybe we'll find out that there are specific rates for specific drugs, or that men and women respond differently, or who knows what else.

 

Where would we get data like that? My suggestion is right here in this forum. People already put their dosages in their signatures at the end of their posts. Maybe we could exploit that?

On the other hand, it would be nice to get reports from people without them having to post something to the forum. Maybe what's called for is a little web app that lets people report their current (or past) dosages? If that could be integrated into the forum it would be even better.

 

Another approach would be to just extract the data we want from the signatures. We could even use a crowdsourcing tool like Mechanical Turk. All anonymized, of course.

KEY: Drug @CurrentDoseMaxDose (time span). Details.
Prozac @4040 (2020-present). Replaced 50mg Zoloft with 10, then 20, then 40mg Prozac starting Sep 2020. I was not doing well at 25mg Zoloft, 150mg Wellbutrin XL. So, to try something new, I switched to Prozac. I am definitely more stable on this dose. Nevertheless, issues with insomnia, and worries about bone strength, make me wish to try a taper again sometime.

Zoloft @0250 (1998-2020). 250mg most of the time. Starting Spring of 2009, tapered by 25mg steps down to 25mg/day by Oct 2010. Emotional crisis prompted return to 200mg by end of 2010. Reduced to 150mg in Sep 2012. Dropped to 125mg 1 April 2013. Dropped to 100mg around 1 June 2013. Dropped to 90mg 5 Dec 2014. @80mg 5 Jan 2015. @70mg 5 Feb 2015. @60mg 5 Mar 2015. @50mg 5 Apr 2015. @45mg 7 Sep 2015. @40mg 5 Oct 2015. @35mg 1 Nov 2015. @30mg 1 Dec 2015. @25mg 29 Dec 2015. @50mg Nov or Dec 2019. Transitioned to Prozac Sep 2020.
Wellbutrin XL @150300 (2004-2020). Started at 150mg, quickly ramped up to 300mg. Dropped to 150mg in summer of 2010. Emotional crisis prompted return to 300mg by end of 2010. Dropped to 150mg 9 Apr 2014. Tried going back to 300 1 Apr 2020; feared it was harming my memory and so cold-turkeyed off 1 May 2020.
Klonopin @01 (1998-2005).
Paxil (1997-1998).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator

Sounds like an interesting project, Brain. How would you set it up?

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 Emeritus

Nice, Brain. I like the way you did your sig line, too. Fun.

 

Also, Rhi's a she. :-)

Started on Prozac and Xanax in 1992 for PTSD after an assault. One drug led to more, the usual story. Got sicker and sicker, but believed I needed the drugs for my "underlying disease". Long story...lost everything. Life savings, home, physical and mental health, relationships, friendships, ability to work, everything. Amitryptiline, Prozac, bupropion, buspirone, flurazepam, diazepam, alprazolam, Paxil, citalopram, lamotrigine, gabapentin...probably more I've forgotten. 

Started multidrug taper in Feb 2010.  Doing a very slow microtaper, down to low doses now and feeling SO much better, getting my old personality and my brain back! Able to work full time, have a full social life, and cope with stress better than ever. Not perfect, but much better. After 23 lost years. Big Pharma has a lot to answer for. And "medicine for profit" is just not a great idea.

 

Feb 15 2010:  300 mg Neurontin  200 Lamictal   10 Celexa      0.65 Xanax   and 5 mg Ambien 

Feb 10 2014:   62 Lamictal    1.1 Celexa         0.135 Xanax    1.8 Valium

Feb 10 2015:   50 Lamictal      0.875 Celexa    0.11 Xanax      1.5 Valium

Feb 15 2016:   47.5 Lamictal   0.75 Celexa      0.0875 Xanax    1.42 Valium    

2/12/20             12                       0.045               0.007                   1 

May 2021            7                       0.01                  0.0037                1

Feb 2022            6                      0!!!                     0.00167               0.98                2.5 mg Ambien

Oct 2022       4.5 mg Lamictal    (off Celexa, off Xanax)   0.95 Valium    Ambien, 1/4 to 1/2 of a 5 mg tablet 

 

I'm not a doctor. Any advice I give is just my civilian opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy