FloridaTaper
Evidence-based information on benzodiazepine tapering, withdrawal, and BIND
FloridaTaper publishes careful, evidence-informed writing on benzodiazepine tapering, withdrawal, and recovery — for patients, families, and clinicians.
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Latest articles
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The Two-Syringe Method: Using Dual Concentrations to Achieve Precise Benzodiazepine Dose Reductions
In the middle of a benzodiazepine taper, the numbers get small. Smaller than tablets. Smaller than half tablets. Smaller than anything a pill splitter could dream of producing. This is not a…
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Gabapentin and Pregabalin During Benzodiazepine Tapering: Borrowed Relief That Creates a Future Debt
In many tapering stories there comes a moment when someone offers a cushion. We can add gabapentin, they say. It will take the edge off. And when you have been white-knuckling a…
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Flexeril for Muscle Spasms During Withdrawal: An Option When the Pain Gets Unbearable
It starts in your calf at two in the morning, a cramp that arrives like a fist closing. Or it is your shoulders, which have been up around your ears for a…
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When Promethazine for Benzodiazepine Does Not Help Withdrawal Symptoms: Why a Potent Antihistamine Can Produce Zero Effect
Promethazine has put a lot of people to sleep. It gets used before medical procedures. Travelers take it to sleep through long flights. It is, by any ordinary measure, a heavy, capable…
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Propranolol, Clonidine, and Hydroxyzine: When Standard Comfort Medications Cannot Reach the Suffering Benzodiazepine Tapering Patient
By the time many people in benzodiazepine withdrawal find a physician who understands tapering, they can recite the list from memory. Propranolol for the pounding heart. Clonidine for the surges. Hydroxyzine for…
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How Stress From Everyday Life Events Triggers Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Flares
You were having a decent stretch. Two good days, maybe three. Then the electric bill came in a hundred dollars high, or someone said something sharp on the phone, or the evening…
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Spreading Out Your Diazepam Doses: Why Timing Matters More Than You Think During a Cross-Taper
You made the switch, or you are partway through it. Your alprazolam (Xanax) or lorazepam (Ativan) is stepping down. Diazepam (Valium) is stepping in. Everyone told you diazepam was the smooth one,…
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Clonazepam Versus Diazepam: Why Some Patients Cannot Cross Over and How to Taper Without a Substitute
You did your homework. You read about the Ashton Manual. You joined the groups, and everyone kept repeating the same advice: cross over to diazepam, then taper slowly from there. Then your…
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Benzodiazepine-Induced Neurological Dysfunction: Why Standard Psychiatric Treatment Can Make Things Worse
You finally worked up the nerve to describe it all. The burning skin, the 4 a.m. terror, the strange flat look the world has taken on since your dose went down. And…
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When No Comfort Medication Works: Managing Benzodiazepine Tapering Without Pharmacological Support
Somewhere in your home there is probably a drawer. In it are the bottles. The one for your racing heart that changed nothing. The one for sleep that never brought sleep. The…