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Crazy Meds Comprehensive BuSpar page
One of the most important aspects of any medication is how to go about taking it. This includes:
- how much to take (the dosage or dose)
- when and how often to take it (dosing schedule or doses)
- how much to start with and how to increase the dose/dosage until you’re taking the target amount (titration or titration schedule).
This information is always in the PI sheet, is usually in the information for patients leaflets, most doctors will give you some idea of what it will be like, and this is what every pharmacist is trained and paid to tell you.
We here at Crazy Meds often disagree with the official schedules found in the PI sheets. We usually advocate starting at a lower dosage than recommended. One of our core philosophies is increasing the dosages as slowly as one’s condition allows, and staying at the dosage that works instead of a target dosage1. More and more doctors are agreeing with us2. You and your doctor can always discuss increasing the dosage when you need to in advance.
And since you never really know how a drug might affect you, it’s best to start when you have some time off of work. Like Friday night / Saturday morning, or your equivalent. Better still would be to get someone to stay with you or at least check on you frequently, especially if you’re the primary caretaker of young children and similar critters.
1. BuSpar’s dosage and doses
The starting dose is usually 5 mg 3 times per day, for a total of 15 per day. With a half life of 3 hours, stepping up every two to three days is not unreasonable biologically — however, it’s insane from a common-sense point of view. Give BuSpar a week between dose step-ups at least, so you can see if it’s doing anything for you at the lower dose. Standard dosages of BuSpar in clinical trials are usually 20 to 30 mg per day; the maximum dosage of BuSpar is 60 mg per day.
2. Best way to take / special instructions for taking BuSpar
3. BuSpar’s titration (dosage increase)
One thing PI sheets and doctors infrequently discuss, and don’t go into enough detail about, is how to discontinue a medication. With some meds it’s not too bad, but with others (most notably SNRIs like Effexor and Cymbalta) it can be a nightmare.
4. How to stop taking BuSpar
Given a half-live of two to three hours, stepping down by 5 mg at every day is reasonable. Though every other day would be safer. Unless it didn’t do anything at all, including no psychiatric effects, including stuff like making the anxiety or depression worse. In which case go for 10mg a day.
5. Discontinuation symptoms
6. Notes, tips, helpful hints, etc. for discontinuing BuSpar
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Crazy Meds Comprehensive BuSpar pages
1 Although not everyone has the luxury of stopping at a dosage when the symptoms abate and not increasing it unless the return. Sometimes you just have to keep going up until you reach that target dosage. E.g. you have a history of seizures that haven't yet responded to several medications.
2 Most notably Dr. Edward Faught, founder and Director of the Epilepsy Center, and vice chairman of the Department of Neurology, at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham. His article on new antiepileptic drugs in Volume 7 issue 1 of Peer Review in Review stressed starting at low dosages, doing a slow titration, and stopping at the dosage where symptoms were under control. In Topiramate in the treatment of partial and generalized epilepsy*, the one free, full-text article I could find (that's not about geriatric patients), he again stresses the low and slow approach to avoid or lessen most side effects, while still achieving seizure control in the same amount of time.
*Link to Topiramate in the treatment of partial and generalized epilepsy Scroll down to the section “Practical use of topiramate”
Date created (ftime b H:%M @(timestamp)) Page Creator: Jessica Allan Last edited by:
Crazy Meds’ Recommendations on How Much to Take, How to Increase the Dosage, and How to Stop Taking BuSpar is copyright (ftime %Y @(timestamp)) Jessica Allan
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