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Mental Health (Expert Forum)
Withdrawal symptoms from prozac
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.
Withdrawal symptoms from prozac
by VAL, May 02, 2000 12:00AM
I suffer from panic attacks and am currently weaning myself off of Prozac. I took 20mgs. Prozac for approximately 4 years starting in 1995. I then weaned myself down to 15 mgs. for approx. 3 months, feeling slightly less anxious. I lowered to 10 mgs. three weeks ago, 5mgs. one week ago, and now have taken none for the past 4 days. I also take .5mg. of clonazepam twice a day for one month. My concern is what type of withdrawal symptoms am I to expect in the coming weeks or months? It scares me to keep this up, but I feel I must try because of the intense anxiety I feel while on Prozac. If this doesn't work, my doctor, who is a family practitioner, suggested taking Serzone as it is less anxiety provoking. What do you suggest?
Thank you for your input.
Val
Thank you for your input.
Val
Doctor's Answer
by HFHS-M.D.-HG, May 04, 2000 12:00AM
Dear Val
Prozac is a medication with a long half life and so it is not necessary to taper the dose before stopping it. It can be stoppped abruptly with out experiencing any withdrawal symptoms. Medications such as SSRI,s (Serotonin Specific Reuptake Inhibitors) like zoloft and paxil and Benzodiazepines such as klonopin,xanax were shown to be effective in the treatment of panic disorder. Other medications such as serzone, effexor and buspar were shown to have positive effects in the treatment of panic disorder..
I would recommend that you talk to your physician in detail about the options that are available. A combination of medications and cognitive-behavior therapy are shown to be very effective in the treatment of panic disorder.
Sincerely
HFHS-M.D.
Prozac is a medication with a long half life and so it is not necessary to taper the dose before stopping it. It can be stoppped abruptly with out experiencing any withdrawal symptoms. Medications such as SSRI,s (Serotonin Specific Reuptake Inhibitors) like zoloft and paxil and Benzodiazepines such as klonopin,xanax were shown to be effective in the treatment of panic disorder. Other medications such as serzone, effexor and buspar were shown to have positive effects in the treatment of panic disorder..
I would recommend that you talk to your physician in detail about the options that are available. A combination of medications and cognitive-behavior therapy are shown to be very effective in the treatment of panic disorder.
Sincerely
HFHS-M.D.
