20mg stopped working!

[Marisa76]

Hi, I've been on 20mg for 5years and just before Christmas I became stressed and the anxiety has slowly returned, it's worse at the time of the month but small stresses trigger it and I'm unable to focus and concentrate and am finding no joy in anything.
I want to ask my Dr if I can up my dose but wanted to know if anyone had gone higher than 20mg and how they dealt with the higher dose (did it help, side affects etc)

Thanks for any comments

[panic_down_under]

Welcome to No More Panic, :welcome:


I want to ask my Dr if I can up my dose but wanted to know if anyone had gone higher than 20mg and how they dealt with the higher dose (did it help, side affects etc)

I doubt your GP will increase the dose above 20mg as this is the recommended maximum because of concerns higher doses can adversely affect the heart.

Therefore, you're almost certainly looking at a switch to another antidepressant. I understand venlafaxine (Effexor) is high on the NHS list of alternatives. I suggest you resist and ask for sertraline (Zoloft), or duloxetine (Cymbalta) instead, in that order.

Switching from one SSRI to another can usually be done overnight with minimal trauma, or via a short cross-taper with the SSRI -> SNRI chance mostly done by cross-tapering. The main difficulty with switching is drug equivalence is not an exact science when it comes to antidepressants so some follow up dose adjusting may be required.

[Marisa76]

Thank you that's very helpful x

[ana]

I was coping best on 15 mg, but after upping my dose to 20 mg and being on it for a while, I found that it had stopped working for me. My therapist decided to change my medication, and so I did a cross-taper, and am now only on Venlafaxine.
I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one the maximum dosage didn't work well for. :)

[sandis]

I have been on all types of doses. I started on 5mg, then 10, then 20, then 40 and back to 20. I am just now going back up to 40mg to see if that works. I think it depends on where you are in your life as well.

The only ever symptom i had was when i was going down in dose, i got a little dizzy every now and then, but it didnt last long.

My doctor told me that 40mg is the highest healthy daily dose.

You can only try it and if it doesn't work, there are always other options.
I hope you have success.