Taper and get help with a doc sure, but tampering with meds isn’t risk free. Depends on the taper and the drugs. For example, delayed release functions are physical and stop working when the pill is crushed. With the above guidance, you could accidentally end up with too much in the morning and too little in the evening.
Also each med has a specific pharmacokinets profile that identifies how long the drug lasts before your body can eliminate it. This will guide you on how long a taper might need to be.
Do it with a doctor’s help. If doctors aren’t available, ask a pharmacist for guidance on next steps.
Yes, thank you for completing the information. Time release is certainly a factor in pill splitting.
How would you use the half-life of a drug in your system in your taper schedule? I just continued the same daily course of treatment, but for longer acting drugs, I’d experiment with spacing out the doses before I starting pill splitting.
My experience tapering under supervision was entirely negative. First, they said the drugs weren’t working, yet they refused to take me off of them. It is only when I said I was already in the process of tapering that they agreed. Then they gave me a rapid taper (one month), which was WAY outside anything I’d seen online. Then they FORBADE me from splitting the pills or diluting them, even though I wasn’t able to sleep after going off the smallest dose. (My comment about the filler was because that was one reason she gave for forbidding pill splitting; even presented with the evidence that a 20mg capsule measured 20mg of mass, she still refused). Instead of allowing pill-splitting they offered me–I am not making this up–more drugs to help me sleep, drugs that I would have to taper off of!
So, ultimately, I tapered on my own using meds from a higher scrip I requested when i falsely admitted that I wanted to give the meds another try. I honestly don’t understand our absolute reliance on medical professionals who only know about us what we tell them.
You mentioned pharmacists, which make me think you’re in Europe? [Edit: I see you’re Canadian, aka, soon-to-be-minted Honorary European] Here in the US, pharmacists are underutilized by law; I did talk to them about compounding to get a smaller dose, but the cost was absolutely nuts.
Taper and get help with a doc sure, but tampering with meds isn’t risk free. Depends on the taper and the drugs. For example, delayed release functions are physical and stop working when the pill is crushed. With the above guidance, you could accidentally end up with too much in the morning and too little in the evening.
Also each med has a specific pharmacokinets profile that identifies how long the drug lasts before your body can eliminate it. This will guide you on how long a taper might need to be.
Do it with a doctor’s help. If doctors aren’t available, ask a pharmacist for guidance on next steps.
Yes, thank you for completing the information. Time release is certainly a factor in pill splitting.
How would you use the half-life of a drug in your system in your taper schedule? I just continued the same daily course of treatment, but for longer acting drugs, I’d experiment with spacing out the doses before I starting pill splitting.
My experience tapering under supervision was entirely negative. First, they said the drugs weren’t working, yet they refused to take me off of them. It is only when I said I was already in the process of tapering that they agreed. Then they gave me a rapid taper (one month), which was WAY outside anything I’d seen online. Then they FORBADE me from splitting the pills or diluting them, even though I wasn’t able to sleep after going off the smallest dose. (My comment about the filler was because that was one reason she gave for forbidding pill splitting; even presented with the evidence that a 20mg capsule measured 20mg of mass, she still refused). Instead of allowing pill-splitting they offered me–I am not making this up–more drugs to help me sleep, drugs that I would have to taper off of!
So, ultimately, I tapered on my own using meds from a higher scrip I requested when i falsely admitted that I wanted to give the meds another try. I honestly don’t understand our absolute reliance on medical professionals who only know about us what we tell them.
You mentioned pharmacists, which make me think you’re in Europe? [Edit: I see you’re Canadian, aka, soon-to-be-minted Honorary European] Here in the US, pharmacists are underutilized by law; I did talk to them about compounding to get a smaller dose, but the cost was absolutely nuts.