12 hours ago, scj1236 said:

just went from 0.105 to 0.094 g. feel a bit off just now (took the dose about four hours ago). should i just tough it out for now and see if it improves over the next couple days?

How do you rate your symptoms out of 10?

I note you plan 10% reductions every 2 weeks according to your footer. I would suggest you only make these every 30 days at the most.

I would say 3, though as the day went on I felt fine and feel fine this morning. I think you said it's normal to feel a bit off when you lower doses at least initially?

34 minutes ago, scj1236 said:

I would say 3, though as the day went on I felt fine and feel fine this morning. I think you said it's normal to feel a bit off when you lower doses at least initially?

That sounds ok to me then. It is completely normal to get some symptoms when you drop for a few days.

Everyone is different and you need to work out your baseline.

If your baseline is that good 0-1/10 then I’d maintain that going forwards.

I’d start by holding till you get back there again. Then I’d drop no more than 10% total in a month. You could spread that out and do 2.5% per week for 4 weeks and then hold for 2 weeks. A brass monkey slide. That’s sounds like a nice plan for you.

It’s best to not over do it and keep your nervous system in tact. It’s hard to undo a rushed taper.

Chippy

hmm on second thought feeling off again today. I'm going to try 5% every two weeks.

11 hours ago, scj1236 said:

hmm on second thought feeling off again today. I'm going to try 5% every two weeks.

Ok, that is the max you should do really. Give the nervous system a little time to settle before making any more reductions perhaps. The body sets the pace mate.

update - things going well. just went down 7.5% again to 0.079 g (12.366 mg of medication). This is a ways off but at what point do you recommend to switching to a liquid form? I feel like I can cut these down into very small amounts (combination of a razor blade and then a file). below is my schedule with the 7.5% decrease every two weeks.

also at some point the changes will be so small that they will go beyond the detection range of my scale, which is +/- 0.001 grams. isn't the advice when you get down to the equivalent of around 1 mg just to stop? since you obviously can't keep going down forever. or maybe people switch to every other day at this point?

9/17/26	0.079	12.366
10/1/26	0.073	11.439
10/15/26	0.068	10.581
10/29/26	0.063	9.787
11/12/26	0.058	9.053
11/26/26	0.054	8.374
12/10/26	0.050	7.746
12/24/26	0.046	7.165
1/7/27	0.042	6.628
1/21/27	0.039	6.131
2/4/27	0.036	5.671
2/18/27	0.034	5.246
3/4/27	0.031	4.852
3/18/27	0.029	4.488
4/1/27	0.027	4.152
4/15/27	0.025	3.840
4/29/27	0.023	3.552
5/13/27	0.021	3.286
5/27/27	0.019	3.039
6/10/27	0.018	2.812
6/24/27	0.017	2.601
7/8/27	0.015	2.406
7/22/27	0.014	2.225
8/5/27	0.013	2.058
8/19/27	0.012	1.904
9/2/27	0.011	1.761
9/16/27	0.010	1.629
9/30/27	0.010	1.507
10/14/27	0.009	1.394
10/28/27	0.008	1.289
11/11/27	0.008	1.193
11/25/27	0.007	1.103
12/9/27	0.007	1.020
12/23/27	0.006	0.944
1/6/28	0.006	0.873
1/20/28	0.005	0.808
2/3/28	0.005	0.747

Edited September 18Sep 18 by scj1236

2 hours ago, scj1236 said:

update - things going well. just went down 7.5% again to 0.079 g (12.366 mg of medication). This is a ways off but at what point do you recommend to switching to a liquid form? I feel like I can cut these down into very small amounts (combination of a razor blade and then a file). below is my schedule with the 7.5% decrease every two weeks.

Hi @scj1236. I'm glad things are going smoothly. As Chippy previously mentioned, we really recommend not reducing by more than 10% per month. This will become even more important as your dose gets lower. It's important to go slowly and listen to your body so you don't run into trouble with your taper.

For citalopram, it looks like the Maudsley Guidelines recommend switching to liquid around 5.5 mg. We also suggest taking a full month to switch between pills to liquid without making any drops, because the switch itself can be destabilizing.

2 hours ago, scj1236 said:

also at some point the changes will be so small that they will go beyond the detection range of my scale, which is +/- 0.001 grams. isn't the advice when you get down to the equivalent of around 1 mg just to stop? since you obviously can't keep going down forever. or maybe people switch to every other day at this point?

I would definitely go much lower than 1 mg before stopping. The "moderate" Maudsley Guideline taper recommends going down to 0.1 mg as your last dose, and the "slower" taper recommends going all the way down to 0.06 mg. You can easily do this using a liquid dilution. We never recommend every other day dosing.

what I recall reading from horowitz was 5-10% with at least two weeks between changes. why would this be more important as your dose gets lower? the percentages already are there to account for the shape of the dose x SERT occupancy curve. for example there will be 8 weeks between the ~1.5 and ~1.0 doses (for a change of 0.5 mg) at 1.39, 1.29, 1.19, 1.10. whereas right now i would go down about 4 mg in the same amount of time, 8 times as much.

for the low dose, what would be wrong with continue with the pills until you literally can't make it any smaller? i've found i can get the tiniest amounts in increments of maybe 0.002 grams. also i can get the liquid citalopram by prescription so i don' tneed to make anything.

Edited September 18Sep 18 by scj1236

13 hours ago, scj1236 said:

what I recall reading from horowitz was 5-10% with at least two weeks between changes. why would this be more important as your dose gets lower? the percentages already are there to account for the shape of the dose x SERT occupancy curve. for example there will be 8 weeks between the ~1.5 and ~1.0 doses (for a change of 0.5 mg) at 1.39, 1.29, 1.19, 1.10. whereas right now i would go down about 4 mg in the same amount of time, 8 times as much.

for the low dose, what would be wrong with continue with the pills until you literally can't make it any smaller? i've found i can get the tiniest amounts in increments of maybe 0.002 grams. also i can get the liquid citalopram by prescription so i don' tneed to make anything.

ultimately everyone is different, some people can just taper by receptor occupancy and be fine, some people have extreme difficulty at the lowest doses so have to close to the end drop by 0.01mg steps.

when you reach the end of the hyperbolical curve, where the dose effect is almost linear (last 1mg or 0.5mg, depends on the drug really) then you can start tapering more linearly if you don't have issues just tapering by receptor occupancy theory, the main issue is it's theoretical and it's an estimate and we aren't always 100% sure how it is actually, different people may have different ROs on the same dose, your best bet is to listen to your body.

On 9/18/2026 at 9:00 PM, scj1236 said:

for the low dose, what would be wrong with continue with the pills until you literally can't make it any smaller?

One issue is it is then hard to perform a crossover taper with such a small dose.

alright, thanks. will follow-up again with my updated progress a few months down the line

i have been feeling off a bit the last few days (light headed mainly later in the day) since decreasing 7.5% last Thursday, so i'm going back to 5% every two weeks. guess you were right! so i'm at 0.081 g instead of 0.079 and updated my schedule for 5%

Edited September 23Sep 23 by scj1236

10 hours ago, scj1236 said:

i have been feeling off a bit the last few days (light headed mainly later in the day) since decreasing 7.5% last Thursday, so i'm going back to 5% every two weeks. guess you were right! so i'm at 0.081 g instead of 0.079 and updated my schedule for 5%

Ok, remember 10% may be too much too. Don't be afraid to hold. Aim for symptoms to return to 1-3/10 before considering another drop. Listen to the body and let it set the pace for you.

10 hours ago, scj1236 said:

i have been feeling off a bit the last few days (light headed mainly later in the day) since decreasing 7.5% last Thursday, so i'm going back to 5% every two weeks. guess you were right! so i'm at 0.081 g instead of 0.079 and updated my schedule for 5%

Also consider following a hyperbolic taper plan rather than 10% per month. This might help you maintain the schedule you like to have whilst dealing with the increased proportional receptor occpancy of lower doses.

i thought this was a hyperbolic taper, as each decrease is of a smaller amount? to clarify i'm doing 5% every two weeks, which is effectively 10% per month though

15 hours ago, scj1236 said:

to clarify i'm doing 5% every two weeks, which is effectively 10% per month though

Yes, 10% is often too much as you go lower, please just be aware of this.

15 hours ago, scj1236 said:

i thought this was a hyperbolic taper, as each decrease is of a smaller amount?

No it isn't a hyperbolic taper, it may or may not follow something like a hyperbolic taper, however a true hyperbolic taper follows the Sert occupancy curve of your drug, dropping the same sert points each time. The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines have some examples of this for many of the common drugs taken.

I do have that book. on page 171 regiment C is that what you mean? with the 2.7% occupancy drop each time (“Slower taper with up to 2.7 percentage points of SERT occupancy between each step – with reductions made every 2–4 weeks.”)

However I'm confused because the RO column doesn't actually go down 2.7% each time (??) it has 79.4, 77.9, 76.2 etc

also is there a formula available to calculate SERT?

17 hours ago, scj1236 said:

I do have that book.

Great

17 hours ago, scj1236 said:

on page 171 regiment C is that what you mean?

On my copy (UK) its page 179 for Citalopram Slower Taper C

17 hours ago, scj1236 said:

with the 2.7% occupancy drop each time (“Slower taper with up to 2.7 percentage points of SERT occupancy between each step – with reductions made every 2–4 weeks.”)

That is the one

17 hours ago, scj1236 said:

However I'm confused because the RO column doesn't actually go down 2.7% each time (??) it has 79.4, 77.9, 76.2 etc

I checked a few, some do some don't, I think it's mainly rounding errors.

17 hours ago, scj1236 said:

also is there a formula available to calculate SERT?

No, you have to use a sert chart to see. Each drug has a differnt curve. I always reference the Maudsley and assume these are the most accurate records. They may still be too fast for some just pinch of salt as always is required. Body sets the pace.

ok, these are the values it shows, first being dose (mg) second being RO. It's not just a rounding error. For example 75.2 - 74.1 is only 1.1. Actually most of the differnces are ~2.1, was 2.7 a typo?

edit: oh i see it sais "up to" 2.7%. no idea why they do it that way.

since i can't calculate SERT for any given dose, isn't this a bit risky? what if my body really needs only say 2%? I have no idea to know what that is precisely. You can guess but can't infer since it's not linear. i'm a statistician, maybe i should see if i can fit a hyperbolic curve to the data to see if I can accurately find other estimates.

Also it says to switch to liquid once you get below 10 mg - why? you can get 10 mg pills which are easy to cut down to smaller amounts. I can understand the dilution below 1 mg though.

I think I will switch to ths and see how it goes. I will start with making one level in between, e.g.

dose (mg)	weight (g)	SERT
12.656	0.081	71.0%
11.350	0.073	???
10.000	0.064	68.1%

Edited September 26Sep 26 by scj1236

2 hours ago, scj1236 said:

edit: oh i see it sais "up to" 2.7%. no idea why they do it that way.

Good catch

I would not get too hung up on following the exact curve. I use RO as another tool in the box. I can see data is important to you. Mainly the body sets the pace. You have experienced some WD, this is the body telling you to slow. I mentioned the hyperbolic tapering plans as I thought you might like that concept seeing you like numbers so much. Please try to not fixate on it too much though.

When switching to a liquid it is advised to perform a crossover taper, it is much easier to perform the crossover when you have enough pill to cut and weigh into 1/4 of your current dose for reasons I am sure you can understand. More information here to help make sense of that : Preparing Doses for Tapering - Weighing & DIY Liquids

Changing batches and switching to different pill sizes can be destablising and it might be worth crossing over too, or at the very least holding for a bit.