My doctor has lowered my Plaquenil dose to 200mg a day from 400mg as I am having severe gastric reactions to my medications. Has anyone else cut back on this med? Did you have any problems? What should I watch for? And how long did it take for any problems to surface? Any help would be most appreciated.
Cutting Plaquenil dose
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My doctor cut me back to 300mg a day from 400 due to a lower ideal body weight than is desirable for the 400mg dose, and I have not noticed a thing. Going down to 200 from 400 I did while I was pregnant and did not notice anything either (but pregnancy induced some sort of remission for me until late in the 3rd trimester too).
With the very long half life of Plaquenil at 30 days... it would probably be a month before you would notice much of anything from lowering the dosage of this drug. Some people are able to maintain very well at the 200mg dose too... although most will stay at the 400 dose if they tolerate it & that is near the max dose for their body weight.
With the very long half life of Plaquenil at 30 days... it would probably be a month before you would notice much of anything from lowering the dosage of this drug. Some people are able to maintain very well at the 200mg dose too... although most will stay at the 400 dose if they tolerate it & that is near the max dose for their body weight.
Cher,
When my dermy first put me on plaquenil I did the low dose then upped it during the summery months. When Nov. 1st came he tried to lower it back to the 200 but it was not long before I was flaring. He put me back on the 400 and the next year he tried it again. You guessed it I flared again, so he marked in my chart that dosage was not to be lowered. I then lost insurance coverage about 5-6 years ago and had to go completely off the plaquenil. I am back on it yet again but I think in my case my body rejects having the plaquenil taken away cause it just has a fit when the dosage changes or it is just taken away all to together. I mean the fatigue is worse, the joint pain is worse, the swelling is more often and harder to get down, if I go out in the sun within 15minutes I will look like I have chicken poxes, I have a dryer mouth and my eyes are real dry also. Well, I am sure you will be fine I and my body are a strange bunch lol . I was told by my dermy that I was his problem child what should work doesn't and what will not work seems to help me ( he was always scratching his head with me). Let us know how things work for you.
When my dermy first put me on plaquenil I did the low dose then upped it during the summery months. When Nov. 1st came he tried to lower it back to the 200 but it was not long before I was flaring. He put me back on the 400 and the next year he tried it again. You guessed it I flared again, so he marked in my chart that dosage was not to be lowered. I then lost insurance coverage about 5-6 years ago and had to go completely off the plaquenil. I am back on it yet again but I think in my case my body rejects having the plaquenil taken away cause it just has a fit when the dosage changes or it is just taken away all to together. I mean the fatigue is worse, the joint pain is worse, the swelling is more often and harder to get down, if I go out in the sun within 15minutes I will look like I have chicken poxes, I have a dryer mouth and my eyes are real dry also. Well, I am sure you will be fine I and my body are a strange bunch lol . I was told by my dermy that I was his problem child what should work doesn't and what will not work seems to help me ( he was always scratching his head with me). Let us know how things work for you.
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