Aa
Fluoxetine
I've had depression for some time and was prescribed fluoxetine a few months ago. In the second and third week of taking it I experienced what I can only describe as mild euphoria and a sort of agitation- not being able to sleep, restlessness and the shakes- which was not unpleasant because of the euphoric feeling that accompanied it. Since then this has subsided and even though I am still taking it, it is not really having an effect and I am almost back to how I was before I began taking it. I was wondering if anyone could explain all this to me, becuase it doesn't seem, from what I've read, to be a typical experience of taking an SSRI. I was also wondering if anyone could reccommend other antidepressants that might be effective for longer than a couple of weeks and wont give me the shakes.
Best Answer
Euphoria of course is something to watch out for. If any anti-depressent brings on any kind of personality change of any kind you should inform your psychiatrist right away. Motor restlessness such as akathesia is a side effect of SSRI's such as Prozac that is not that uncommon. That can be treated with a side effect pill. Speak to your psychiatrist about that. Sometimes Prozac doesn't work as well after a while but that is usually long term. There are other options but the side effect of motor restlessness might occur among other anti-depressents. This would have more information on anti-depressents in general:
http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.html
http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.html
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When they were still giving bipolar patients anti-depressents regularly I tried every variety and had a particular problem with SSRI's.
Sorry to say that every type of anti-depressent I have taken has come along with lots of side effects, I think it is something they all have, it's crappy and unfair that all the psych drugs have so many side effects but that's the way it is.
All I can offer in advice is keep trying different ones and different classes, until you find one with the most tolerable side effects. It may take a while and is a fairly kind of gruelling thing to be changing all the time but if you can find the right one and your unipolar diagnosis is correct you will probably still have side effects, maybe mildly. But would you rather be horribly depressed all the time or have to deal with a couple of side effects. For this you need so much patience, I know, but it can be done...