pillxyz: Want to get off hydroxyzine

August 2

Hello, I take 50 mg hydroxyzine at night (2 years) and lorazepam .5 mg twice per day (3 years). I would like to get off the hydroxyzine. Do I need to taper? If so, what kind of tapering schedule? Thank you.

Edited August 3 by Emonda
Name to title

August 5

Hello, and welcome to Surviving Antidepressants. We are a peer support forum to assist in tapering off psychiatric drugs safely, or recovering from psychiatric drug withdrawal.

We recommend tapering by no more than 10% of your CURRENT dose each month, to limit withdrawal symptoms. E.g. 10mg --> 9mg --> 8.1mg --> 7.29mg

All the answers you are looking for regarding tapering and antidepressant withdrawal are on this site. Please search around and continue to read as much as you can manage. Use the site search function to search for specific words or phrases, such as drugs or symptoms.

I would suggest following the 10%/month guidelines for reducing your dose of hydroxyzine. It is not an antidepressant, but after 2 years of daily use you will not be able to sleep if you rapidly remove it. Histamine drugs often need to be tapered as cautiosuly as psychiatric drugs after long exposure. Your first five reductions would be:

Month 1: 50 --> 45mg

Month 2: 45 --> 40.5mg

Month 3: 40.5 --> 36.45mg

Month 4: 36.45 --> 32.81mg

Month 5: 32.81 --> 29.52mg

Here are a few of the most useful links:

--------Important topics in the Tapering forum and FAQ--------

Micro tapering

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

Taking multiple psych drugs? Which drug to taper first?

How to make a liquid from tablets or capsules

Using a scale to weigh and measure doses