Dreamday: Difficulty Tapering Domperidone

[Dreamday]

Hi everyone I’m glad to find this support group. I’ve been on Dom for a little over 3 years. I was on 60mg daily (20mg three times daily). I had stopped in the past for a week and had no issues no withdrawal I was creating that break the tolerance as dom was not upping my supply that much anymore. 
 

Well my daughter is almost 4 years old and we still nurse and nursing has been the most fulfilling experience of my life. But I want to get off this drug. 
 

I’ve managed to be down to 2.5mg twice a day so 5mg daily for two months and I have no symptoms at that amount. 
 

last week I thought I’m on such a low dose I should just stop the 1/4 tablet morning dose and just taper to the evening dose 1/4 tablet dose. Well that’s when the horrible insomnia started. The next two days I stopped the dom  completely and I was up all night and my mind would keep racing. After two nights of this I got up at 5am and bit off a small piece of the dom and I managed to get 2 hours of sleep. 
 

Next day I went back on 1/4 tablet twice a day and slept great that night and woke up feeling great. 
 

Now I plan to stay on the 5mg daily for a month or so and plan to split the 1/4 tablet into half and reduce to 1/8 morning 1/4 night for 4 weeks. Then 1/8 morning 1/8 night for 4 weeks. 
 

after 1/8 it’s going to be hard to split further any suggestions or tips for furthering splitting ?

 

I can’t believe the horrible withdrawal even at such a low dose?

 

seems like I’ll be on this dose for the rest of my life at this point. 

 

xx

[Dreamday]

Trying to quit Domperidone

 

I started domperidone almost 3 years ago at 60 mg daily (20 mg three times a day) and it worked great.

I was developing a tolerance to dom so my milk supply kept dwindling down. I would reduce and stop dom for a week then start back up at 60mg. The reduction of dosage and then starting back up at the regular dose would make my supply skyrocket but only for about 2 weeks then it’d creep back down again. 

 

Then about a year ago I dropped to 30 mg a day and had no issue when I reduced. I didn’t have a need to keep my supply up that much since my child was much older. But we love our nursing time and she continues to nurse three times a day even though my supply is super low now. I can’t imagine the day this nursing journey will end because it has been the most fulfilling experience of my life. 
 

So now to come to my withdrawal- the strange thing is when I would reduce and then up the dose again in the past - when I’d reduce the dose I would sleep really hard and deep. 
 

So in January 2022 I decided I’m going to get off the dom completely. So I managed to get down 0.5 a tablet twice a day. And I had no symptoms. 1 tablet is 10 mg. So daily I came down to 10mg. 
 

My supply was so low so I though I’d just stop and I did for a couple days and I couldn’t sleep. I immediately went back on 10mg daily (1/2 tablet twice a day).
 

5 days later I dropped to 1/4 tablet morning and 1/2 tablet evening. 2 days later I dropped to 1/4 tablet morning and 1/4 tablet evening.
 

Surprisingly I had no issues no withdrawal.
 

So I was on 5mg daily (2.5mg morning 2.5 mg evening) for 6 weeks.
 

March 17th I decided to drop my 5mg daily to 2.5mg by doing only 1/4 tablet in the evening.
 

Two days later I couldn’t sleep. At all. I stopped dom completely for two days and things got worse. 
 

I was baffled how I never got a withdrawal at high doses and now at 5mg I’m getting horrible insomnia and anxiety when trying to sleep. 
 

so I’m now back on 1/4 tablet (2.5mg) twice a day so 5mg /day. 
 

I slept so horribly last week that I’m thinking to stay on 5mg daily for 3-4 weeks to get my sleep pattern back. 
 

Then I plan to reduce either the morning or evening dose by half (so not exactly the 10% talked about a lot here) since the tablets are super small. 
 

im not sure if I should do 1/8 tablet morning and 1/4 tablet evening or 1/4 tablet morning and 1/8 tablet evening. 
 

hopefully that small reduction will be seamless then 3-4 weeks later I will reduce to 1/8 tablet twice a day. 
 

after 1/8 tablet (1.25mg) twice a day it’ll be hard to half it further so I’m super nervous how to reduce further slowly from then on. 

 

Wish me luck. 
 

Edited March 23, 2022 by ChessieCat
added Intro topic title before merging with intro topic

[Altostrata]

Welcome, @Dreamday

 

While domperidone is not a drug prescribed for psychiatric purposes, it is a related psychotropic and some women have come here with problems going off it because they can't find support anywhere else. Consequently, we have some information about domperidone

 

It's a drug that needs to be tapered, like other psychotropics. Since you already got withdrawal from it, your nervous system may be more vulnerable. Suggest you go more slowly than this:

 

Quote

My plan is to reduce the quarter tablet twice a day to 1/8 tablet twice a day in 6 weeks.

 

Suggest you stabilize on 5mg daily for at least 2 weeks, then follow our general tapering guidelines:

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?
 

Keep daily notes of drug schedule and symptoms to track patterns and progress
 

Tapering with a liquid is most convenient. You may be able to get domperidone liquid from a compounding pharmacy, but maybe not since technically, the drug is not approved in the US. If so, you can make your own liquid:

Using an oral syringe and other tapering techniques
How to use oral syringes, gelatin capsules, powdered tablets, and do-it-yourself liquid solutions
 
How to make a liquid from tablets or capsules
General instructions on making a homemade liquid suspension

[Dreamday]

I’m down to 2.5 mg a day. 1.25mg twice a day.  I’m just using a pill splitter to get 1/8th tablet chunks. Cannabis has helped me tremendously with sleep and anxiety. 

[Altostrata]

Up to you. You may wish to read the other Introductions topics tagged "domperidone"

[Dreamday]

I was down to 1.75mg from 2mg a day and then some stressful events happened while I was tapering lower and my early morning insomnia started up again. 
so I’m back at 2mg again until my life is a little more settled. 

[Dreamday]

I’ve managed to have low/no symptoms at 2mg a day so I’ll just keep tapering even more slowly. I’ve made it here from 60mg a day. I can do it. 

[Altostrata]

Sometimes letting your nervous system settle down for a while at a low dose makes the final leg easier. Suggest you consider 10% decreases rather than 25%.

[Dreamday]

Day 5 of 0mg and no symptoms! Being in therapy and small amount of cannabis at night has helped tremendously. I think I did it. 

[Altostrata]

Good to hear. Please do check in with us again as you recover.

[Dreamday]

So it’s been two months off domperidone and I continue to be symptom free. I remember being at a place where I thought I’d never be off domperidone.
 

Things that helped that I want to share incase it may help someone is - therapy! And mainly a great therapist that I connect with. Also using cannabis (vaporizer)and then months later I’ve started mirtazapine at a micro low dose of 1.88mg. It’s worked tremendously with my anxiety and sleep issues from other ailments that I suffer from. Now that I have the knowledge of the 10% taper I can feel confident that I’ll come off mirtazapine in the same manner as well when I need to. 

 

But for now I need mirtazapine and the positive effects are tremendous. It’s absolutely mind boggling that a 1.88 mg dosage of mirtazapine can have such a profound effect. My prescribed dosage was 7.5mg. Just goes to show how over prescribed some medications can be. 
 

Good luck to others getting off medications that are no longer serving them. Be patient it takes time. It took me 10 months but that’s without all the knowledge I gathered 6 months into trying to get off domperidone.
 

Get help use professional support and reach out to others - Hope my journey is able to help someone. 
 

Happy 2023 to all. 

[Altostrata]

Thank you. It's not a surprise to us that you feel 1.88mg mirtazapine is a sufficiently effective dosage for you. These drugs are powerful psychotropics and dosed way too high.