Seroxat and pregabalin please help

[Page22]

Hi people I am in desperate need of some help/advice. I have suffered with panic and anxiety all of my adult life, it started with the stomach bubbles, hand wringing, over heating and a kind of feeling of not being real along with paranoia that I was going mad and that people were looking at me etc, I got it under control with 20mg seroxat daily and never really had any major issues again, just the occasional feeling of the stomach bubbles. Three years ago, 12 years after starting on seroxat I became pregnant with twins, I took the seroxat throughout pregnancy on the advice of my doctor who felt the risk to me outweighed the risk to my babies, anyhow 8 months later I went into labour and gave birth sadly to one healthy child and one stillborn. Five days after birth I developed your classic pnd symptoms alongside obvious grief, my world came crashing down around me and all my earlier anxiety symptoms returned, my medication was increased to 30mg of seroxat and after two weeks I felt able to cope again. I got on with life for 18 months and felt happy, then the symptoms once again returned, my medication was again increased to 40mg and two weeks later I felt normal again. Now 6 months on I'm once again going through panic and utter misery because of the constant anxiety, I feel that I am falling apart, that I am going to go mad and that I will be this way forever. My doctor has now prescribed pregabalin 75mg twice daily which was working fine until he said that I needed to reduce the seroxat, I started reducing it by 10mg to 30mg a fortnight ago and didn't really notice much effect but in the last couple of days I've started to feel frightened and very sad again and on the edge of breakdown. I want to know if anyone can recommend anything, I'm having cbt which doesn't really seem to help me, I just want to be medicated and feel normal again and I don't want to be in this state any more. Please help.

[Emphyrio]

Sorry to hear about your pregnancy. Paroxetine seems to be a difficult one to quit and comes with a lot of side effects. Your 40 to 30mg jump was too great it seems.

If you want off medication completely, there are ways you can do it. It is suggested that you come off the medication very slowly - 10% of your current dosage every 3-6 weeks. That means that it could take 2 years to taper off it completely. I know it sounds like forever, but there are plenty of horror stories about people taking paroxetine (and other SSRIs), coming off them too quickly, and being hit with horrific anxiety and depression. A slow taper lets you maintain your quality of life, and while you may still get some kind of withdrawal symptoms, it is generally manageable. Plus it allows you to work on your underlying anxiety using CBT and other techniques.

There is a good website for people who want to get off paroxetine - its called paxilprogress, and the people there will advise on a good tapering schedule.

[Consider]

I may jumping to the same bandwagon as you Page, but I am tapering slowly and starting up Prozac soon, due to weight gain. At first, the weight gain wasn't such a big deal until now. The Paxil works, but the side effects don't play well with me. With Paxil the key is to taper VERY slowly, as the withdrawal symptoms are terrible. Cold turkey is not recommended nor is tapering off week by week, its too much for the brain to really handle. Follow Paxilprogress, they can help you as this time. I hope you feel better soon, you will get through this, I promise.