How Should a Person Be Weaned Off a Medication?

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acshuman

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I know NOW that a person needs to be 'weaned' slowly off of an AED.
I wish I would have known this 28 years ago! I went to a large hospital, in the city that I lived in, to see a doctor. I later found out he was NOT knowledgeable when it came to E. This doctor looked at my chart and said 'I don't think you should be taking phenobarbital'. He told me to completely stop taking the phenobarbital immediately and I, the 'doctors know everything' type of person, did as he said!:bigsmile: I never had any negative side effects from this sudden withdrawal, but I later found out that some people(few) have died or had severe reactions when an AED is withdrawn so abruptly.
Later in my life I learned the proper way of 'weaning' my body from one drug and slowly introducing a new drug into my body. There may be some strange feelings in your body when a new drug is introduced, because your body has to become tolerant of that new drug. This may take different amounts of time for different people, some people may NEVER have these 'feelings'.:ponder:

ACsHuman
 
One definitely needs a doctor involved as you go through the weaning off process, and if a person does not have confidence in their neurologist then another one should be found. Withdrawal should always be slow, and just how slow and how long the process of weaning takes depends on the dose and length of time on the drug.
 
I cut down lamotrgine I have admit I getting some unpleasant head aches.i knocked it down from 400mg to 300mg been nearly 2 onths I not cut it down any more till see doc
 
I found out the hard way years ago that I cannot abruptly stop any AED or I could go status. That is what happened when the dr. I was seeing (not a neurologist) had me stop taking Dilantin and start Tegretol. A terrible idea!! I was in the hospital for a day, getting the meds straightened out. One should be slowly titrated and weaned from these STRONG meds.
It could be deadly!
 
I hope culture has changed so patients today do not just blindly follow. 28 years ago is not today and medicine has changed. I try to be knowledgeable enough to figure out if a doc knows enough to treat our medically complex child. There are quite a few docs who 'say' they get it but actions don't match or their words show they don't know. I know docs are trained to be authorities but there is too much to know these days. So I prefer docs who partner with patients and are confident enough to say they don't know something, they usually listen better and get better results.
 
Hobbes said:
I hope culture has changed so patients today do not just blindly follow. 28 years ago is not today and medicine has changed. I try to be knowledgeable enough to figure out if a doc knows enough to treat our medically complex child. There are quite a few docs who 'say' they get it but actions don't match or their words show they don't know. I know docs are trained to be authorities but there is too much to know these days. So I prefer docs who partner with patients and are confident enough to say they don't know something, they usually listen better and get better results.
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Well put. Wish I came up with this :)

I'm fortunate that my doctors do see themselves as partners with each other and with me in my health care, however I also realize how fortunate I am that this how things are for me. It sure wasn't this way with specialists prior to the ones I have now.
 
When my neuro has taken me off a med like when I was on Clonazepam which I was on for years he didn't just stop it; he took me to the smallest dose of it taking it until I eventually came off it.

The same with phenobarb and they both took about a month for me to come off of also. My neuro took no chance and he told me I had a chance of having sz's while coming off o them ; and that only happened once clonazepam.
 
Unless there's a crucial reason for a fast taper (such as an allergic reaction) weaning should be "low and slow" -- small increments spread out over a long time. The idea is to minimize withdrawal side effects by making the taper-steps small, and giving the brain time to adjust at each interval. The drug maker usually has a recommended taper schedule, but going even slower than that can't hurt and may help.
 
I have learned that my neuros have suggested weaning off faster than what actually worked for me (and often, faster than what is recommended in the literature and by other patients). I usually cut the wean times way back now, after having had seizures using my neuro's timetables.
 
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