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Mental Health (Expert Forum)
PROZAC FOR A LONG TIME
Questions posted in the Mental Health forum are being answered by Dr. Roger L. Gould, author of the Mastering Stress and Depression program and affiliated with the UCLA. Department of Psychiatry. Topics covered include anger, attention deficit disorder (ADD) , bipolar disorder , dementia , electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) , learning disabilities, memory, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) , panic , personality disorders, phobias , post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) , schizophrenia , stress , transitions, and work problems.
PROZAC FOR A LONG TIME
by Felipe Gonzalez, Mar 22, 2000 12:00AM
Dear physicians:
I'am a 35 years old man who have suffered panic
attacks during the last 3 years(just one or two per year).I star-
ted my treatment taking northriptiline but that med didn't work
very well , so my doctor gave me Prozac 20mg/day, taking the pild
early in the morning.Prozac worked fantastic,i really felt as good as i was all of my life.I forgot the panic attacks and i
thought that there were no reason to continue taking Prozac.
In a couple of months i started to feel not well enough and one
day one panic attack came back to me,so i have now to retake Pro-
zac and actually i'm not feeling as well as the first period of
the treatment.
The point is that my doctor told me that perhaps i'll have to ta-
ke Prozac for the rest of my life and i wonder if that is right
and what could be the side effects of using this med for a long
time.
BEST REGARDS - FELIPE
I'am a 35 years old man who have suffered panic
attacks during the last 3 years(just one or two per year).I star-
ted my treatment taking northriptiline but that med didn't work
very well , so my doctor gave me Prozac 20mg/day, taking the pild
early in the morning.Prozac worked fantastic,i really felt as good as i was all of my life.I forgot the panic attacks and i
thought that there were no reason to continue taking Prozac.
In a couple of months i started to feel not well enough and one
day one panic attack came back to me,so i have now to retake Pro-
zac and actually i'm not feeling as well as the first period of
the treatment.
The point is that my doctor told me that perhaps i'll have to ta-
ke Prozac for the rest of my life and i wonder if that is right
and what could be the side effects of using this med for a long
time.
BEST REGARDS - FELIPE
Doctor's Answer
by HFHS MD-JM, Mar 23, 2000 12:00AM
Felipe,
Panic disorder is effectively treated with Prozac and the other SSRI's. It is not uncommon that long-term treatment is required for this disorder especially if you had a trial off of the medication and you had a relapse of symptoms. There are no long-term adverse effects associated with this treatment and many people are on maintainence doses(just as if they were being treated for another chronic condition like high blood pressure).
You may require a slightly higher dose of Prozac if you are not receiving as robust of a response as you did initially. Keep in mind that your medication should be monitored regularly and consideration for discontinuing the medicine in the future following a prolonged remission may again be considered. Hope this was helpful.
Sincerely,
HFHS MD-JM
Keywords: Prozac, Panic disorder
Panic disorder is effectively treated with Prozac and the other SSRI's. It is not uncommon that long-term treatment is required for this disorder especially if you had a trial off of the medication and you had a relapse of symptoms. There are no long-term adverse effects associated with this treatment and many people are on maintainence doses(just as if they were being treated for another chronic condition like high blood pressure).
You may require a slightly higher dose of Prozac if you are not receiving as robust of a response as you did initially. Keep in mind that your medication should be monitored regularly and consideration for discontinuing the medicine in the future following a prolonged remission may again be considered. Hope this was helpful.
Sincerely,
HFHS MD-JM
Keywords: Prozac, Panic disorder
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Thank you very much for your response.Here I'am
again trying to disturb you with my questions.Following with
my case I want you to tell me something about my claustrophobia.
When I felt those panic attacks that I told,they laid me a huge
terror to be in closed places,just thinking that I could be in
an elevator stopped in the wrong place and the door doesn't open
makes me feel that I can't breathe and a panic will appear again
or I'll just go crazy or die.Sometimes I think that those things
are stupids but I can't stop the symptoms.So my doctor gave me
XANAX 0.75mg/day in three takes but now I don't use this drug.
I want to know if I have to take this med to dismiss my claustro-
phobia.I know that there are some treatment exposing me to the
situations that shot my panics attacks so my brain could learn
again that those situations are normal and they can't give me any
fright.Sometimes I like to expose me but I have not my doctor in
the city that I live.Should I do this?
BEST REGARDS , FELIPE