Hello.
Clonotril needs to be tapered off gradually. One should not abruptly stop using this drug, as it can lead to withdrawal effects, as you might have experienced.
You can take two tablets of 0.5mg each to start with. And if you break each tablet into 4 parts, there will be a total of 8 parts of 0.125mg each. Now, a safe plan is to reduce one part every 4 days, or you can plan to reduce two parts every 7 days. At this pace, you will be able to taper off Clonotril over 4 weeks.
If you want, you can extend the taper period from 4 weeks to 6 weeks.
Another method for the taper is to combine Clonotril with
Diazepam (Calmpose/
Valium), reduce Clonotril first, and then reduce Diazepam gradually. For this, you will have to discuss with your doctor and get it prescribed.
You can choose either of the plans. But the idea is to gradually reduce the dose of Clonotril so that the body gets used to less and less amounts of the drug and there are no withdrawal effect.
Hope this helps.
Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD