Tapering Xanax

[Emmas Mom]

I am currently taking 1.5mg of xanax a day.  I take .5 upon waking and then .25 in four hour intervals until I hit the limit of 1.5.  I talked to my doctor because I would like to stop taking this medication and he told me to taper .25 weekly until I am at zero.  Is this safe and accurate?  He acted like the amount I am on is no big deal and that I would not even feel the effects of tapering.  My concern is going that fast will cause a withdrawal seizure, which terrifies me.  Any input is appreciated.

[J T Junig, MD PhD]

You should be fine at that schedule.  The dose is not all that high, but it is not low either.  A low dose would be a person taking 0.25 mg once per day;  I have had addicts who had pushed their tolerance up to 30 mg of Xanax per day-- and THAT is very high!

If you can taper at the dose you described, you won't have a seizure.  A more common way, though, is to change to a longer-acting benzodiazepine like clonazepam, and taper that.  If you have problems with the Xanax-- namely with having too much anxiety in between doses-- ask your doctor about the clonazepam method.

[Emmas Mom]

I have been on this amount of Xanax since early June 2008.