Prozac and Klonopin mixed together?

[scrotaye]

Hello

I recently (3 weeks ago) switched from 40mg Paxil/day to 20mg Prozac/day.  The first 3 weeks went fine with expected dizziness and nausea.  But the past few days I've been experiencing depression.

1)  Is this normal?  Perhaps the paxil is out of my system and the prozac has not kicked in yet?  It's a bit weird because I was not depressed during the last 3 weeks.  I hope this goes away..

2) How long does prozac take to fully "kick in" ?

3) I also take 2x .5mg klonopin a day as needed (as I did with the paxil) but I was just reading this on wikipedia..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSRI#Contraindications_and_drug_interaction

It says that benzodiazepines like alprazolam (Xanax) or diazepam (Valium) (klonopin is also a benzo) along with SSRIs (paxil/prozac) may increase blood levels and risk of toxicities.

IF this is true

4) Why am I prescribed Klonopin with the Prozac (and previously the Paxil?)  I have had no problems with mixing the two together but I'm curious as to why it would say that in wikipedia.

Thanks!

[DWB484]

Hopefully you followed the sensible advice to ask a pharmacist. If you didn't, 'ballpark' answers would be:

1) Paxil (Paroxetine) is well-known to have unpleasant symptoms as part of a discontinuation syndrome. 40mg daily is a significant dose and one would expect to have difficult experiences upon changing or stopping it. However, three weeks is a long-time, it's possible your mood is dropping and worth discussing this with your doctor.

2) Prozac (Fluoxetine) has a very long half-life, possibly up to eight weeks, and so does take much longer than most SSRI's to 'kick in'. Also, it's thought any individual anti-depressant will only produce symptom relief in about two-thirds of depressed individuals who take it. Again, perhaps speak with your prescriber.

3) & 4) Wikipedia does not give 'ex cathedra' advice and you should be critical of anything you read there. Klonopin (Clonazepam) is a powerful benzo; 1mg is roughly equivalent to 10mg of Valium (Diazepam). All drugs have unwanted effects as well as therapeutic ones and mixing drugs will almost always carry a possibility of interaction. However, if this interaction is rare, your prescriber has presumably decided that the benefits of you taking Klonopin outweigh the risks. Yet again, you need to discuss this with your doctor.

Good luck!

[birdie0907]

Are you able to call a pharmacist now? They will be able to answer better than someone here.