Should I Switch from Paxil?

[Treehugger]

About 5 months ago I was diagnosed with Depression NOS and Anxiety at Mayo Clinic.  Evaluations by two psychiatrists and a therapist have revealed no "emotional" cause - Mayo Clinic's best "guess" was a viral infection causing a biological inbalance.  I am currently going to therapy to deal better with stress and anxiety.

For the chemical inbalance, I have been taking Paxil along with Trazadone for sleep.  The problem is that the Paxil works great for a few weeks then seems to "poop out".  I am steadily improving but keep having dips back that are starting to scare me.  My Dr. first added desipramine to boost the Paxil (it helped at first, then made me extremely tired and stopped working in 4-5 weeks.  He then tried Welbutrin but it made me way too nervous so it was stopped in a few days.  Then a few weeks ago he increase my dosage of Paxil to 30 mg.  For about two weeks I felt great - back to my old self.  Then about five days ago I started feeling really sleepy and groggy and all my energy was zapped.  I tried to relax and thought it would go away - but it hasn't.  Its hard to work and get back to normal life with this sleepiness.  I think the 30 mg of Paxil may be too much. (I take 1/2 at 7am and 1/2 at 7pm and sleep great).  Now I am getting nervous that I am never going to be back to normal.

Do you think I have given Paxil enough time to work?  I am considering asking my Dr. to let me try Celexa as I have heard good things about it.  What would be involved with switching meds?

Your opinions on all this would be greatly appreciated.

[mr illinois]

For the past several months I have been expierienceing what the doctors are calling panic disorders. I have been expieriencing chest pains which they have ruled out as non-cardiac, the blood pressure rises to dangerous zones as 206/168 and tachycardia 170.
Before this began a couple of months ago I was a healthy adult white male age 34.  When the attacts start, it is always wiht chest pain, hand shaking, and extreme shortness of breth, but the SPO2 is always at 95% or better.  The only signigicant medical history that I have i sever hypertension which they try and manage with atenolol 100mg Bid.  I do however suffer from chronic headaches in which the headache time frame is more than without.  For that they prescribe vicoden ES ii tabs every six hours, and when that doesn't work they tell me to go to the ER for an injection of pain medication. For the panic attacks they have precribed ativan 2-4mg PO at onset or 1mg TID.  I usually only take the medication when one occurs and have to take it for a day or two afterwards.  The results are effective.  However I have noticed lately that the SOB is occurring more frequently, especially at the workplace.  I am a LPN with the corrections department, If I had to make an assessment of the situation I would say that work has a lot to do with the diagnosis.  The only thing that has me troubled is weather it is a correct and logical diagnosis.  I understand that  there are a tremendous amout of medications readily availabe, but the thing is that I recently got married and the wife and I are trying to become pregnant, and the medication side effects usually interferes with the reproduction system.  I onec took elavil up to 250mg daily to help with the headaches I was having, but I was not able to produce any sperm at all. If I unederstand correctly most of the TCA's have the same side effect. The panic attacks are occuring more frequently and I do not know what to do.  Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.  I was also wondering if you thank I should talk with a phyciatrist about this proplem or if a general practicioner is just as suitable.

Thank You,
Mr. Illinois

[Peagee]

Return to Index  

ELI LILLY: PRODUCERS OF LSD (for CIA MIND CONTROL), HEROIN, METHADONE, PROZAC
May 31 2002 at 6:06 PM Peagee  (no login)



Response to VITAL INFORMATION ON SSRIs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



http://www.painstresscenter.com/mall/Prozac.html

Extract:

"....Time and time again, a new drug is promoted as being safe and effective. Users claim great things. Before long, terrible side effects and addiction or worse result. Finally, after a long list of casualties, it becomes a controlled substance and an illegal street drug.

Eli Lilly, the maker of Prozac, also produced Heroin, Methadone, and LSD.22 Heroin was supposed to be the safe alternative to Morphine. Later, Methadone was prescribed to get people off of Heroin, but it was just as addictive. LSD, initially produced for use by the CIA in mind control experiments, was promoted as being safe for psychiatric use.23 Eli Lilly also introduced Darvon in 1957 and promoted it as non-addictive.

Twenty years and many deaths later, warnings were finally required. In the late 1950's, Parke, Davis & Company introduced PCP (angel dust) as a painkiller. "Medical studies" had shown that PCP had a large margin of safety.24 Valium was supposed to be safe, then found to be very addictive. Xanax was introduced as a safer drug to replace Valium, but it turned out to be even more addictive.25 The same story goes for cocaine and amphetamines - once promoted as safe and effective, now controlled substances."

[Treehugger]

I spoke to my Dr. about switching and he thinks I should try adding the Welbutrin again to the Paxil and waiting a little longer.  Why do you suppose he wants to stick with the Paxil?  I am game to give something else a try.  I am a healthy 42 year old that works out regulary and has a pretty good like besides the depresson/anxiety that is dragging me down this year.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

Its actually quite common for Paxil, and medications like it, to wear out.  People frequently switch to other medications in the same family that work better, and Celexa is a good choice, and the switch is relatively simple and uncomplicated. Your doctor will regulate the dose so you don't have withdrawal from Paxil, which is short acting,and hard to stop cold turkey.