Chapter 17
How To Taper ADD, ADHD And Stimulant Medication
THE FDA HAS published approved guidelines for tapering off these medications.
Those guidelines are what I published a decade ago and this approach is as
effective now as it was in 1999.
Reducing this class of medication is rather straightforward and usually does not
cause a problem.
Reducing the Medication
Reduce the medication gradually and if side effects begin that are too severe, go
back to the last dosage you were doing fine with, get stable again and then reduce
the medication again, but this time at a slower reduction amount.
The above can seem too basic and too easy to understand for it to be
misinterpreted. However, that is not the case.
Gradual – Most of us take the word gradual to mean slowly, but there is a need to
give a good example of gradual. Imagine you are in an airplane that is about to
descend for the landing. What would you like that landing to be like? Would you
prefer to not feel the decent and when the plane touches the runway you do not
even feel the tires touch ground? This is a landing where I have heard the
passengers cheer and thank the pilot when they get off the plane. This is also the
gradual landing we want for you when reducing your medication.
Gradual when tapering off a medication would be; a slow and steady decent that
does not jar and bump the person reducing the drug. Gradual would also be a speed
of reduction that would allow the person to still function in life and reduce to a
minimum the chance of withdrawal side effects.
If you agree with the above, this removes the idea of skipping days of the
medication in order to reduce the dosage and get off the drug. Skipping days or
alternating from a higher dosage to a lower dosage every other day is not gradual.
One only needs to examine the half-life of the medication to establish that datum.
You go in withdrawal every other day and feel an overdose effect the days you are
going back up on the dosage.
Never Skip Days of the Drug
All drugs in this class come in completely different dosages and with most being in
a time-release the variances are too vast to list in a book of this type. We will first
take what to do with a non-time release medication.
ONLY REDUCE MEDICATION EVERY 14-DAYS
Non-Time Release Medication
If you are taking a non-time release medication, reduce the medication as near to
10% as possible. You can get a pill slicer from a pharmacy to help with this. Every
14-days reduce the drug by another 10%. After 10 reductions of the drug you are
drug free.
Time Release or Extended Release Medication
There are specific dosages the drug is available in as a time release. After 7 days of
the pretaper, you reduce the drug to the next lower available dosage. Every 14-days
you should be able to reduce the drug again to the next available lower dosage.
Continue with this method until completely off the drug.
DO NOT OPEN THE CAPSULE AND REMOVE THE BALLS.
Chapter 17
How To Taper ADD, ADHD And
Stimulant Medication
THE FDA HAS published approved
guidelines for tapering off these
medications. Those guidelines are what I published a
decade ago and this approach is as
effective now as it was in 1999.
Reducing this class of medication is
rather straightforward and usually does
not cause a problem.
Reducing the Medication
Reduce the medication gradually and if
side effects begin that are too severe, go
back to the last dosage you were doing
fine with, get stable again and then
reduce the medication again, but this time at a
slower reduction amount.
The above can seem too basic and too
easy to understand for it to be
misinterpreted. However, that is not the
case.
Gradual – Most of us take the word
gradual to mean slowly, but there is a
need to give a good example of gradual. Imagine
you are in an airplane that is about to
descend for the landing. What would you
like that landing to be like? Would you
prefer to not feel the decent and when the
plane touches the runway you do not
even feel the tires touch ground? This is
a landing where I have heard the
passengers cheer and thank the pilot
when they get off the plane. This is also
the gradual landing we want for you when
reducing your medication.
Gradual when tapering off a medication
would be; a slow and steady decent that
does not jar and bump the person
reducing the drug. Gradual would also be
a speed of reduction that would allow the person
to still function in life and reduce to a
minimum the chance of withdrawal side
effects.
If you agree with the above, this removes
the idea of skipping days of the
medication in order to reduce the dosage
and get off the drug. Skipping days or
alternating from a higher dosage to a
lower dosage every other day is not
gradual. One only needs to examine the half-life
of the medication to establish that datum.
You go in withdrawal every other day
and feel an overdose effect the days you
are going back up on the dosage.
Never Skip Days of the Drug
All drugs in this class come in
completely different dosages and with
most being in a time-release the variances are too vast
to list in a book of this type. We will first
take what to do with a non-time release
medication.
ONLY REDUCE MEDICATION
EVERY 14-DAYS
Non-Time Release Medication
If you are taking a non-time release
medication, reduce the medication as
near to 10% as possible. You can get a pill slicer
from a pharmacy to help with this. Every
14-days reduce the drug by another 10%.
After 10 reductions of the drug you are
drug free.
Time Release or Extended Release
Medication
There are specific dosages the drug is
available in as a time release. After 7
days of the pretaper, you reduce the drug to the
next lower available dosage. Every 14-
days you should be able to reduce the drug
again to the next available lower dosage.
Continue with this method until
completely off the drug.
DO NOT OPEN THE CAPSULE
AND REMOVE THE BALLS.
