Wow. that's a big question. My doc monitors me. I see him every 3 months. He's very thorough, and does an exam of my joints, hips and shoulders, and questions me about my pain level. He just presses on those ares to see what makes me wince. Questions me about how I'm feeling then he decides to have me decrease on the first day of the next month. If I remained pretty solid over that time then he does another decrease. The problem I'm having is each time now that I try to get to 7 I crash. More soreness, more pain overall. My doc is out for a medical emergency right now, and I would typically reduce by one mg. But I'm going to go to 7 1/2 and try that since I missed my appt. last week and I have 2 1/2 mg on hand.. I'll stay there if 7 1/2 works, and then I'll got to 7 the first of August, then I'll try 6 1/2, and I'll see him in Sept. If I get into too much pain he just puts me back where I was. So If I crash at 7, then he'll put me back up to 8 and I'll stabilize there. I haven't tried the 1/2 mg steps before. so I'll see how this works.