In another article on this website, we noted that, in many cases, serotonergic antidepressants should be discontinued using “hyperbolic tapering.” Often, this requires using a combination of oral tablets and a liquid formulation.
As the dose of the medication continues to be progressively reduced, it has to be reduced by smaller and smaller amounts each time. So, it is important to understand how to administer small doses of liquid medicine accurately.
Systematic research consistently finds that medication dosing errors are less likely to occur when oral syringes are used to administer liquid medications compared to using dosing cups, spoons, or droppers (Balıkçı and Güneş, 2024). I always thought that droppers were the most accurate method, but I was wrong.
Commonly, 3 mL, 5 mL, and 10 mL oral syringes are used to administer liquid medications to children. But it is important for us to remember that the smaller the syringe, the more precise the measurement of the dose. So, as the dose of the liquid medication goes down—as in hyperbolic tapering of serotonergic antidepressants—it is advisable to use 1 mL oral syringes.
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