Weaning off Zoloft

[sunny1018]

I have been on Zoloft for 3 months.  Currently at 100 mg for 1 month.  It isn't working well for me so my pdoc is having me wean off to try something else.  Her schedule is 50 mg for a week then 25 mg for a week then stop.  I told her I thought that seemed too quick and I wanted to do 75 then 50 then 25 then maybe even 12.5.  She says Zoloft withdrawal is not a problem and this taper is fine.  I told her I have read complaints of Zoloft withdrawal and she said her senior citizen patients don't even have a problem with it.  I know it does cause problems for some people and it alarms me that she doesn't.  The only ones she says are a problem stopping are effexor and Paxil.  I am pretty much going to have to follow this schedule because she only prescribed me enough for 2 weeks.  Any advice is appreciated.

[Paxiled]

Of course.

[sunny1018]

Would it be okay to send you a pm?  You seem to be very knowledgable on this forum and I would like to get some more perspective on my situation.

[Paxiled]

Oh, by the way, senior citizens are way overprescribed drugs in general and drugs for mental illness in particular.  Usually, it's to sedate them, not to treat them, because many senior citizens are not aware enough of what's going on to tell their doctors how they're feeling.  This is a big field of current investigation with all drugs and how badly they're monitored in patients in nursing homes.  So we don't really know how well these drugs are truly tolerated and we know they're overprescribed, so this isn't a field I'd quote with encouragement if I were a knowledgeable and caring psychiatrist.  You gotta take control sometimes.

[Paxiled]

I don't know who your doctor is, but she is quite absolutely extremely wrong.  In one of the few head to head studies, which was done by Eli Lilly to sell more Prozac several years ago, they found 67% of people on Paxil had moderate to severe withdrawal, while 60% suffered it on Zoloft.  It's true that Paxil and Effexor are by far the worst for this, but all antidepressants can cause withdrawal.  Celexa has high numbers, Lexapro has high numbers, all snris have high numbers.  That does not mean you will have a problem, especially given the short period of time you've been on the drug -- in fact, because of that I'd be surprised if you have much of a problem.  The fact it isn't working also will probably make it easier to stop taking, since it may mean you just aren't metabolizing this drug very well.  But why not play it safe?  You're right, there's no rush.  Personally, if I had a psychiatrist who told me a whopper like that one, I'd get a new psychiatrist.