How to reduce ziprasidone without crawling out of my skin? Anyone do this?

current Ziprasidone 20Mg 2x day
and ideally I step down 10mg 2x day BUT it only comes in a 20Mg pill

dr. suggested I try to take later in the day to see if I can tolerate just 1 20mg for 24hrs.

If I don't take my AM dose by noon, I feel like I'm crawling out of my skin...

Anyone successfully drop down or maybe I can cut the 20Mg in half manually but that would be a real pain as it's in a capsule...

Open to any thoughts!!

Note; I'm doing this under dr. supervision but just looking for others or maybe struggled with trying to come off ziprasidone... 🙏

So very sorry you are suffering what you described.

I don't have personal experience with ziprasidone so I sure hope others here with experience will see your post soon and respond to it with helpful ideas!

There are online psychiatrists who can render "second opinions". There are fees for this service. And there are psychiatrists in the community who can offer ideas, also for a fee if one is doubtful of one's treatment plan. It can be hard to get appointments with them though.

So very sorry I was unable to be helpful to you in this matter. It is awful that you are having terrible side effects from your med taper!

Thanks for your feedback.. I hadn't thought of a 2nd opinion so that is helpful... I may look into that.. thanks much! (my first post here, so thanks for reply)

Sometimes there are other meds that can make getting off of a med easier. Sometimes this is replacing the med with another med in the same class that is easier between getting from lowest dose to no dose. Sometimes, it's temporarily using something like a benzo to counteract the agitation and restlessness, but then of course you have to get off that too, but hopefully you would've had a short time on it and haven't gotten to the point that's a problem.

Ziprasidone has a short half life too, so that feeling as you've learned hits hard and fast, and in general is more agonizing than something with a long-half life which is why the first option is an option too if you go with an AP with a longer half life.

(Not an MD, just have been around the block and seen the charts)

ah very helpful, thank you! Yeah, my dr. mentioned short half life which explains why I really can't tolerate if I haven't had by noon next day.. I didn't realize there were other ways to get off this so thanks for feedback! This his helpful!

Yeah I'd second maybe asking the pdoc if they have any suggestions on what med to go on to help you get off of ziprasidone. 20 mg is a fairly low dose so it theoretically shouldn't be that hard to get off of. But people have different responses to things, especially with psychiatric meds, so I hear you on the difficulty getting off of it. Are you going on another atypical antipsychotic, or are you just stopping it outright?

Edit: sorry, I didn't realize your dose is technically 40 mg/day. Anyway, my question to you is: are you switching to something else or are you just trying to get off of the ziprasidone for some other reason?

I am on 40 mg Ziprasidone. I love this stuff but I plan to try tapering down to 20 mg, the smallest dose it comes in, to see if that would be enough for my needs.

yes, they are capsules. So if you need less, do what people do with capsules: open them and use half the sprinkles inside the capsule. I assume inside are sprinkles. Not sure, I have never opened them. Maybe it is powder. You can dilute it in a glass of water, mixing / stirring really well, and then drink half that cup at a time.